After it was reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) broke coronavirus lockdown rules to visit a salon, Politico reporter Carla Marinucci came to the top Democrat’s defense by suggesting it might have been illegal to post security camera footage of Pelosi at the San Francisco salon.
“Have to ask upon seeing this: Is it legal in CA – a ‘two party consent’ state – to videotape someone in a private home or business without their consent?” Marinucci asked while linking to a Fox News report about Pelosi’s salon visit.
Attorneys quickly pointed out that it is legal to post security camera footage.
Had Marinucci been correct, it would have meant California businesses wouldn’t be allowed to even install security cameras without posting some sort of statement suggesting that by entering the store, customers consent to be taped.
On Tuesday night, a San Francisco salon owner accused Pelosi of breaking the city’s coronavirus lockdown order to get a blowout. The Daily Wire’s Tim Pearce reported:
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. 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,” Erica Kious, owner of eSalon, told Fox News. “We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right? … It is just disturbing.”
Salons in San Francisco have been able to reopen at limited capacity but only for outdoor services. They are “not supposed to blow dry hair,” according to the coronavirus guidelines, and masks are mandated inside at all times.
As Pearce reported, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammil denied the allegations made by Kious, telling Fox News that “the speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements.”
Security footage showed otherwise, and Pelosi quickly admitted to breaking lockdown order but claimed she didn’t know she had done anything wrong. The Daily Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo reported that Pelosi blamed the salon for her breaking lockdown orders.
“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 said. “The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.”
“I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen?” Kious, the salon owner, said of message from one of the stylists concerning Pelosi’s request.
“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 added. “I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen.”