SAN FRANCISCO — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says her controversial visit to a San Francisco hair salon was a “setup,” and the cosmetologist who worked on her hair is backing up her story.


What You Need To Know

  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she takes "responsibility for falling for a setup"

  • Video shows Pelosi at the salon, which was ordered closed, without a mask on Monday

  • A lawyer for the stylist who worked on Pelosi's hair said the salon's owner approved the appointment

  • The owner, Erica Kious, denies she orchestrated a setup

Fox News obtained security video footage of Pelosi inside the eSalon on Monday without wearing a mask. California barbershops and salons are allowed to only give haircuts outdoors, and even that rule just took effect Tuesday after those businesses were shuttered for nearly six months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Also, masks are mandatory in most public settings in California.

The footage shows Pelosi walking through a room of the salon with wet hair and what appears to be a mask pulled down around her neck. The stylist gave Pelosi’s hair a wash and blowout, the salon’s owner said.

A Pelosi aide said Tuesday that the California Democrat was complying with the rules that were presented to her by the salon. “This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business,” Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill said in a statement.

Republicans seized on the video, attacking Pelosi for what they saw as hypocrisy after the House speaker supported lockdown measures and mask mandates. 

On Wednesday, Pelosi directly addressed the backlash.

“I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighborhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times,” she told reporters. “When they said they were able to accommodate people one person at a time, I trusted that.

“As it turns out, it was a setup,” Pelosi added. “So I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”

The video of Pelosi was given to Fox News by the salon’s owner, Erica Kious, who rents chairs to independent stylists. In an interview with the network, she said she was angry that Pelosi broke the same rules she has advocated for that have left so many small businesses struggling to survive. 

“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 said Tuesday. 

But the lawyer for cosmetologist Jonathan DeNardo said Kious approved Pelosi’s visit during an Aug. 29 phone call. The attorney also supported Pelosi’s accusation that she was set up. 

"The fact that Ms. Kious is now objecting to Speaker Pelosi’s presence at eSalon, and from a simple surface-level review of Ms. Kious’ political leanings, it appears Ms. Kious is furthering a setup of Speaker Pelosi for her own vain aspirations," attorney Matthew Soleimanpour said in the statement.

"Mr. DeNardo’s name has now been dragged through the mud for simply following Ms. Kious’ recommendations."

Soleimanpour added that, in the same phone call in which Kious approved Pelosi’s visit, she “took special interest in the appointment” and made “several vitriolic and incendiary comments about Speaker Pelosi and her purported responsibility for temporarily suspending operations.”

Kious denied Wednesday night that she set up Pelosi.

"There was no way I could've set that up," Kious told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. "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."

Kious said she has received hateful text messages and death threats since she shared the video and doesn’t think she’ll continue to live and work in San Francisco. She insisted her motivation was not political.