House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she was set up by a San Francisco salon where she was videotaped not wearing a face mask after getting her hair washed, in violation of the city's coronavirus restrictions.
"This salon owes me an apology," Pelosi said in response to questions from reporters at the end of a news conference on the Democrats' proposed coronavirus relief act that is stalled in the Senate. " ... It was clearly a set-up. I take responsibility for falling for a set-up by a neighborhood salon I've gone to for many years."
Security camera footage from the eSalon showed Pelosi inside, passing by with wet hair and a mask wrapped around her neck and being trailed by a hair stylist who was wearing a mask. The footage from Monday was provided by the owner of the salon to Fox News, which first reported the story Tuesday.
The images prompted a torrent of criticism Wednesday that Pelosi and other Democrats were hypocritical for placing restrictions on Americans that they themselves are unwilling to follow.
President Donald Trump was among the Republicans who weighed in.
"Crazy Nancy Pelosi is being decimated for having a beauty parlor opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a Mask _ despite constantly lecturing everyone else," Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. "We will almost certainly take back the House, and send Nancy packing!"
Businesses such as hair salons are subject to a patchwork of regulations in California, based in part on how severe the coronavirus crisis is in the counties and cities where they are based. In San Francisco, hair salons were not allowed to do any business on Monday, but as of Tuesday, are allowed to offer services outdoors. The state requires Californians to wear face masks outside the home when social distancing isn't possible.
Trump long showed reluctance to wearing a mask to combat coronavirus and has been seen wearing one in public just a handful of times. Republicans have routinely flouted public health guidelines aimed at slowing the pandemic, such as when more than 1,500 mostly mask-less people crowded on the White House lawn last week to watch the president accept the Republican nomination.
But political observers say Pelosi getting her hair blown out inside a salon Monday is a problem nevertheless because her actions contradict her words.
Jessica Levinson, director of Loyola Law School's Public Service Institute, compared the video to a "let them eat cake" moment.
"For all we know she had her mask down for 15 seconds and 4 feet, but the damage it does is enormous," Levinson said. "It gives us all this great/horrible visual to look at and say, 'Nancy Pelosi is an elitist who is totally unconcerned for working people and just cares about how she looks on national TV and Democrats don't feel your pain.'"
Pelosi said someone at the salon told her they were allowed to accommodate one customer at a time, and that she wore a mask except for when her hair was being washed.
"I just had my hair washed. I don't wear a mask when I'm washing my hair. Do you wear a mask when you're washing your hair?" Pelosi said. "And that picture is when I just came out of the bowl."
A spokesman for Pelosi said normally, the House Speaker has a stylist come to her house to do her hair, but she wasn't available Monday. So the stylist suggested Pelosi's team contact one of her former colleagues, who rents a chair at eSalon. An assistant to Pelosi called that stylist Sunday and asked him if he could come to Pelosi's house. He said he could but also said the salon was allowed to have customers inside one at a time, so the speaker could come there.
Attempts to reach salon owner Erica Kious were unsuccessful. But she told Fox News that an independent stylist who rents a chair from her provided the service.
"I am sharing this because of what everyone in my industry, and my city, what every small business is going through right now," Kious told Fox News.
Republicans argued that Pelosi's violation of city codes show that she was a hypocrite who felt the rules were above her, and that the restrictions in San Francisco need to be eased.
"It's the type of hypocrisy you get out of politicians, but the multiple whammies of doing it in her own backyard when she's literally the most powerful woman in America is really offensive," said Harmeet Dhillon, a GOP state official who sued California on behalf of hair stylists, nail salons and other businesses shuttered because of the pandemic.
"Every woman in California knows what the law is," Dhillon said, adding that she had taken to dying her hair and clipping her husband's hair at their San Francisco home, while friends drove to counties where salons were allowed to operate outdoors.
Some Democrats also warned that the video is ready-made for Trump to exploit. But others argued that this was one instant in the political cycle that would be quickly subsumed by the next viral moment.
"In the culture wars where everyone's hypersensitive to any transgression on either side, I can see this fitting into a narrative that Democrats want a different set of rules for themselves. But it's one haircut. It's not going to have a huge impact on the election," said Rose Kapolczynski, long-time adviser to former Sen. Barbara Boxer. She added that Pelosi is a role model of mask wearing, particularly compared to Trump and his administration.
"And I have to say, Nancy Pelosi has shown wearing a mask can be stylish, too," Kapolczynski said.
