SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday she was the victim of a "setup" when she was caught-on camera earlier this week visiting a San Francisco hair salon shuttered by the coronavirus for a shampoo that landed her in hot water with Republicans.
"It was a setup, and I take responsibility for falling for a setup," Pelosi told reporters during a visit Wednesday to Mission Education Center Elementary School.
"I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I've been to over the years many times when they said, 'We're able to accommodate people one person at a time.'"
The San Francisco Democrat caused an uproar among conservative critics Tuesday after Fox News posted security camera footage it obtained of Pelosi visiting eSalon on Union Street the previous day. The clip showed Pelosi without a mask on, walking inside the salon.
On Monday, San Francisco hair salons and barbershops were still forbidden from operating, and only received the green light to open outdoors, starting Tuesday _ a day after Pelosi's visit. While indoor operations have resumed in some counties like San Mateo to the south, they have not in San Francisco.
But instead of apologizing Wednesday for breaking the rules, Pelosi said: "I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up."
The salon has not responded to interview requests from this news organization, but the owner told Fox News a stylist who rents space from her brought Pelosi in.
Pelosi, when asked why she wasn't wearing a mask in the clip, said she'd been having her hair washed.
"I don't wear a mask when I'm washing my hair," she said. "Do you wear a mask when you're washing your hair? I always wear a mask.
"That picture is when I just came out of the bowl."
Pelosi has for months advocated mask wearing and social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Many of the Republicans hammering her for the visit have rebuked such protocols, which are backed by science.
But they took no time shaming the speaker as a hypocrite.
President Donald Trump predictably took to Twitter: "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.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., took a shot, too.
"Americans have shuttered businesses, complied with local orders, and sacrificed everything to defeat the virus," McCarthy said. "But Nancy Pelosi doesn't think the rules apply to her. She thinks she deserves special treatment."
At least one Bay Area Democrat, however, brushed away the controversy.
"The Speaker was invited by the owner and followed those rules," said Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat. "Also, no man would be subjected to this kind of fake-outrage attack from the right."
