SAN FRANCISCO — More than a dozen protesters gathered outside the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday following her controversial visit to a salon in the city, according to reports.
The rally occurred after Pelosi was captured on video getting her hair cut inside eSalonSF, even though it was closed due to coronavirus-related ordinances. Some of the protesters, described as “angry salon customers,” wore curlers in their hair. Others hung blow dryers and hair curlers in a tree outside the residence to express their frustration, according to reports.
“What she has done is slap the face of not just a salon owner but every woman every man every person who’s unemployed in the state of California who has lost their jobs and lost their livelihoods many of whom are my friends,” one protester said, KRON-TV reported.
San Francisco salons were notified that they could reopen on Sept. 1 for outdoor hairstyling services only after being closed since March.
None of these demonstrators in front of Nancy Pelosi’s home are salon owners or workers. They’ve all described themselves “angry salon customers” who want to get their hair and nails done @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/fVMVM2Aajl
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 3, 2020
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Jessica Christian posted a video of the group, which decorated a tree outside Pelosi’s home with an American flag, declaring it the “Freedom Tree.”
The tree of blow dryers and curlers has been decorated with an American flag and dubbed the Freedom Tree by protestors in front of Nancy Pelosi’s home @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/0dY9SU4JeV
— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) September 3, 2020
“[We] gather to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to earn a living and feed their families,” one protester said before the group raised their hands in unison.
Mayor London Breed was asked on Friday about the protesters. She said it was time to “move on.”
“I get that they have these feelings, they are voicing their feelings, but we are doing the very best we can and I know that’s not good enough for them, I understand,” Breed told KABC-TV. “I get it, but at the end of the day, it is really time for us to move on.”
Security footage obtained by Fox News, and timestamped Monday at 3:08 p.m. PT showed Pelosi, D-Calif., walking through the salon with wet hair, and without a mask over her mouth or nose.
Pelosi’s best defense was to go on offense. She said the situation was a “set up” at the hair salon by the owner, Erica Kious, adding that she had been there “over the years many times.” The owner has denied those allegations, further stating it was an assistant for Pelosi who called to schedule the appointment. Moreover, the security cameras have been in place for years. They were not installed to simply catch Pelosi’s hypocrisy.
Kious had said she viewed Pelosi’s visit as a double standard.
“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious told Fox News, adding that she “can’t believe” the speaker didn’t have a mask on.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco cosmetologist who reportedly worked on Pelosi’s hair during the visit this week attempted last Wednesday to distance himself from Kious. Through a statement issued by his lawyer, hair stylist Jonathan DeNardo said Kious appeared to be “furthering a setup of Speaker Pelosi for her own vain aspirations.”
However, many wonder if the statement from DeNardo is simply survival, since Kious says she’s received death threats after going public with Pelosi’s hypocrisy.
