The San Francisco beauty-salon owner who made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) coronavirus hypocrisy known to the world says she’s closing up shop because she fears for her safety.
Erica Kious, owner of Frisco’s eSalon, released surveillance-camera video showing an unmasked Pelosi getting her hair done in the shop on August 31. Indoor service in San Francisco beauty shops has been banned since mid-March by order of Democratic Mayor London Breed, and Pelosi has strongly advocated the wearing of masks, even going so far as to call for a national mask mandate.
Yet given the opportunity to flout the rules she would impose on the rest of Americans, Pelosi jumped at it. When she got caught, she claimed she had been “set up.”
Kious denied this, saying Pelosi’s ’do was the work of an independent stylist who rented a chair at her salon. The stylist, Jonathan Denardo, sided with Pelosi and dumped on Kious. Denardo’s lawyer claimed Kious had personally approved Pelosi’s appointment and — horror of horrors — had been clandestinely serving clients throughout the shutdown.
Even if Denardo is telling the truth, it doesn’t excuse the fact that, as New York Post columnist David Marcus put it, “Of course Pelosi knew salons were closed. Of course her staff knew that she was breaking the rules, including the otherwise sacred mask diktats. The speaker just didn’t care. The rules aren’t for her. The rules are for poor slobs like you and me.”
Despite this, Pelosi remains a member in good standing of the Washington establishment, in no danger of losing her prestigious position.
Kious, on the other hand, is being harassed to the point of shuttering her business and, if possible, reopening it in another city.
“I am actually done in San Francisco and closing my doors,” she told Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Wednesday.
Kious told Carlson that after she released the Pelosi video, “I started to just get a ton of phone calls, text messages, emails, all my Yelp reviews, just all this, saying that they hope I go under and that I fail. So just a lot of negativity toward my business.”
“Because you told the truth about … a politician violating her own rules in your store, you have to close the store and go out of business,” said Carlson.
“Yes, that’s — I’m actually afraid to go back just because of the messages and emails I’ve been getting, so, yeah, it’s a little scary and sad,” replied Kious. “I do have a lot of positive calls and text messages from clients, but other than that, nothing but negativity.”
“You’re afraid to physically go back to the city of San Francisco?” asked Carlson.
“I am, right now, yes,” she answered.
Kious said it’s the first time she’s felt this kind of fear in her 15 years in San Francisco; but, she claimed, “a lot of people are leaving” because “they’re feeling unsafe.”
Fortunately for Kious, her public feud with Pelosi brought her plight to the attention of people all across the country who are fed up with the hypocrisy of pro-lockdown politicians. A GoFundMe page set up to raise funds to help Kious relocate her business and her family — she’s a single mother of two girls — brought in over $300,000 before being closed by its organizer, Amy Tarkanian, on Monday.
“If it’s safe enough for NV Gov Sisolak to enjoy dining out while listening to ‘ambiance’ music, NY Gov Cuomo to walk his dog or hop on a plane without a mask, or for CA Speaker Pelosi to not only make an appointment in her district but then get her hair done without wearing a mask, then it should be ok for the rest of us to open safely and resume living!” Tarkanian declared after stopping donations.
“I am very humbled and grateful to have received such an outpouring of kindness, empathy and generosity from people I don’t even know, and from all walks of life and all sides of the political spectrum,” wrote Kious. “It’s a powerful reminder that the common things that bind us all together as Americans are far more meaningful and lasting than political and ideological differences that get so much attention and focus.”
Image: screenshot from YouTube video
Michael Tennant is a freelance writer and regular contributor to The New American.
