On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released a statement via her deputy chief of staff confessing to breaking city lockdown rules to get her hair done indoors at a San Francisco salon on Monday, seemingly without wearing a mask.
Pelosi, however, is not admitting to any wrongdoing, instead shifting blame to the salon she visited.
“The Speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements,” said a statement from Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill, according to FOX KTVU.
“This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business,” Hammill added. “The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.”
“Security footage taken from the small business and provided to Fox News appears to confirm the salon owner’s allegation, showing the leading House Democrat with wet hair and no mask walking through the shop on Monday,” The Daily Wire reported earlier on Tuesday. “Hair salons across the city were allowed to open for outdoor services only on Monday for the first time since March.”
“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” eSalon owner Erica Kious told Fox News. “We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right? … It is just disturbing.”
The Daily Wire noted, “While salons have been allowed to open in limited capacity, stylists still are ‘not supposed to blow dry hair’ according to coronavirus safety guidelines, Kious said. The government also mandates that masks be worn at all times inside the salon itself.”
According to KTVU, salons, which have been crushed by COVID-related restrictions, “may only cut hair outdoors under new rules that took effect [Tuesday].”
“Kious’ small business does not employ any workers directly, but rents out chairs to independent stylists. One of the stylists she works with texted her on Sunday that the speaker had requested a hair appointment,” The Daily Wire reported. “Kious’ business was not equipped to perform any appointments outside as mandated by coronavirus regulations, however.”
“I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen?” Kious said of receiving the message concerning Pelosi.
“We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t – it’s a feeling – a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down,” she described. “I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen.”
“I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income,” added Kious. “The fact that they did this, and she came in, it’s like a slap in the face.”
Related: San Francisco Salon Owner Says Nancy Pelosi Broke Lockdown Order For Blowout: ‘Just Disturbing’