House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touted she was the victim of a setup when footage of her inside a San Francisco salon revealed she did not wear a face mask when she got her hair done. The official went to the establishment on Monday despite ongoing local guidelines that ban salons from operating and taking customers during the coronavirus pandemic.
Salon appointment amid the pandemic
According to USA Today, Pelosi said on Wednesday that she takes full responsibility for falling for what she called a setup the salon trapped her in. She added that the establishment owed her an apology for mistakenly portraying her as the offender.
On Tuesday, footage acquired by Fox News showed Pelosi inside the salon and was supported by the establishment's owner, Erica Kious, during an interview. Kious continued to criticize the house speaker for getting the salon to operate and service her when others were banned from doing so.
Coronavirus restrictions on salons in San Franciso and several other small businesses were revised on Tuesday, which allowed appointments to be made but only if they were conducted outdoors. The new rules also required establishments only to serve one customer at a time and necessitate them to wear face masks.
On Tuesday, Pelosi's spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said that the house speaker decided to make an appointment with the salon because the establishment said it would be able to serve her the city's new guidelines.
The video shows House Speaker Pelosi walking across a salon section with what appears to be her face mask tied around her neck with her hair wet. On Tuesday, Hammill said that the Pelosi only took her mask off temporarily while her hair was washed. On Wednesday, the speaker said that she always wears her face mask in public.
The other side of the argument
During an interview on Wednesday, Pelosi told a reported that that footage showed her when she had only gotten her hair washed and asked the interviewer if you wear a mask when washing your hair, as reported by The Guardian.
Kious told reporters that the one who took Pelosi's appointment was one of the salon's stylists who rents out a chair. She added that she had no power over the stylists' actions but said that she had prior knowledge of the speaker's appointment.
On Twitter, United States President Donald Trump weighed in on the incident and said that House Speaker Pelosi was decimated about the opening of a beauty parlor when several other businesses and establishments were forced to close.
The Republican leader also noted how Pelosi was seen in the footage as not wearing her face mask and criticized her for her continuous lecture of citizens for not complying with the same regulation.
After Trump's initial resistance towards wearing face masks in public, he has since recommended citizens to wear facial coverings to help fight against the spread of the coronavirus.
The US president has refused recommendations of a national mandate which would require everyone in the country to wear face masks amid the COVID-19 health crisis. Last week, Trump and other Republican politicians held the RNC, where coronavirus safety guidelines were observed inconsistently.
