San Francisco salon owner Erica Kious told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that the fallout from a visit from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made her consider shutting her business down for good.
Security footage showed Pelosi walking maskless inside the shuttered salon Monday as she visited one of Kious’ stylists, who each rent their own spaces. While Kious criticized the visit as a “slap in the face” after hearing about it, Pelosi called the visit and ensuing publicity a “setup” and demanded an apology.
Kious responded with a firm “absolutely not” when asked about Pelosi’s claim by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
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“How would you have done that?” Carlson asked. “Can you prove that this wasn’t a diabolical set up designed to bring down the speaker of the House by blow drying her hair?”
“She had called a stylist in, or her assistant did and made the appointment, so the appointment was already booked, so there was no way I could’ve set that up,” Kious responded. “And 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.”
The salon owner balked at Pelosi’s claim to not have understood that restrictions didn’t allow one-on-one appointments.
“I heard that, 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?” she said.
“For the past six months, I mean, we’re pretty much done,” she told Carlson “I mean, we’ve lost at least 60% of our clients. I’ve lost the majority of my staff, so, six months is a long time to be closed down.”
Kious called Pelosi’s visit and the fact that she didn’t wear a mask “hurtful.” (RELATED: ‘She Can Do That Because She Is The Speaker Of The House’: Tucker Rips Pelosi For San Francisco Shuttered Salon Visit)
“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?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said, responding to a question from Carlson about whether she would keep her business open. “The hard part of all this is that I’ve been in that community for 12 years. And since this happened, I have received nothing but hate text messages, death threats, they’re going to burn my hair salon down. My Yelp page is just unbelievable with bad reviews. It’s just sad that my community is pulling this, when they are saying that I threw her under the bus when I didn’t. So that’s hurtful, but yeah, I think I’m pretty much done now.”
