The owner of a San Francisco hair salon is pushing back against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after Pelosi accused the single mom and small business owner of a “setup.”
Pelosi came under fire after she was caught on video at a hair salon Monday, raising serious questions about her relationship with hypocrisy when it comes to COVID-19 shutdowns. Hours after her appointment, the freshly coiffed Speaker appeared on MSNBC defending the continued shutdown of small businesses, like hair salons, and wearing masks.
Salon owner Erica Kious spoke to Fox News host Tucker Carlson and called Pelosi’s smear against her “absolutely false.” Kious’s statement came just hours after Pelosi responded to the criticism saying she’d been to the salon “over the years many times,” and is now insisting on an apology from the small business owner “for setting me up.”
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I have been to many times,” Pelosi said to reporters on Wednesday. “When they said they could accommodate people one at a time, and we can set up that time, I trusted that.”
Before adding, “As it turns out, it was a setup. So I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”
“The salon owes me an apology for setting me up,” she demanded.
On Wednesday evening Erica Kious, owner of ESalonSF, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to say that the Democratic legislator was accommodated by an independent stylist who rents space in her salon. Kious told Tucker Carlson that she exposed the now-viral security camera recording when she discovered Pelosi was indoors not wearing a mask in what she labeled a “hurtful” exhibition of duplicity.
“There was no way I could’ve set that up,” Kious responded. “I’ve had a camera system in there for five years. I mean, I didn’t go in there and turn cameras on as soon as she walked in and set her up. So that is absolutely false.”
Since March, salons in Pelosi’s district of San Francisco had been shut down and were only permitted to reopen for outdoor styling services on Sept 1. Pelosi claims she thought that pandemic restrictions now allowed for indoor appointments for client services one at a time.
“I heard that,” Kious said on Fox, “and I thought to myself, ‘Well as a hairstylist, I see clients one-on-one. So, that would mean that I would be open, right?'”
The salon owner told Carlson she had no goal in mind of making a political statement by leaking the security footage, but stressed that Pelosi’s high-handed attitude in her place of business “was more hurtful” than anything.
“This isn’t even political,” she insisted. “She’s been coming in there … it’s the fact that she actually came in, didn’t have a mask on, and I just thought about my staff and people not being able to work and make money and provide for their families, and if she is in there comfortably without a mask and feeling safe, then why are we shut down? Why am I not able to have clients come in?”
As a single mother of two children, Kious now claims she is worried over numerous threats she’s received since Pelosi’s remarks about her. Kious says she will most likely be pressured to leave the area she’s worked in for 12 years.
“Since this has happened, I have received nothing but hate text messages, death threats, [saying that] they’re going to burn my hair salon down,” she alleged. “My Yelp page is just unbelievable with bad reviews.
“It’s just sad that my community is pulling this … saying that I threw her under the bus when I didn’t,” Kious said. “So that’s hurtful, but yeah, I think I’m pretty much done now.”