How Nancy Pelosi’s Salon Trip Became The Right's Latest Outlet For Outage
A controversy involving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a hair salon escalated Thursday as President Donald Trump seized on the visit to score political points.
The squabble over the California Democrat’s hair salon appointment in San Francisco, where she lives when she’s not in Washington, began unfolding Tuesday after Fox News published security camera footage showing her walking across the salon with her mask hanging around her neck.
The problem? San Francisco has not yet allowed salons to reopen indoors, and anyone entering any business in the city now is required to wear a mask to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Pelosi said Wednesday that the footage doesn’t tell the whole story and implied she wasn’t aware of the city’s salon rules. “I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times, and when they said, ‘We’re able to accommodate people, one person at a time,’ I trusted that,” she told reporters at an event in San Francisco.
As for wearing a mask, behavior she strongly advocates and models in public, she said her mask was off in the footage only because she had just had her hair washed. “Do you wear a mask when you’re washing your hair?” Pelosi asked reporters when challenged on it. According to California’s salon rules, people must. Though it’s worth noting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says masks are ineffective when they get wet.
“I think that this salon owes me an apology for setting me up,” Pelosi said.
Jonathan DeNardo, the stylist who did Pelosi’s hair, says the salon owner gave him permission two days ahead of time for Pelosi to come in, but then the owner sent the footage to Fox News. A lawyer for DeNardo also says the owner “made several vitriolic and incendiary comments about Speaker Pelosi,” suggesting the disclosure of the video was politically motivated.
Trump cheered on the scandal, tweeting Wednesday...
