Conservatives across the country have pledged more than $100,000 to help her flee San Francisco. South Dakota’s Republican governor invited her to relocate to that state. Fox News’ A-listers tapped her for prime-time interviews. And the White House featured her secret salon-cam footage on a continuous loop during Thursday’s press briefing.
That’s what happens when you’re the San Francisco salon owner accused of double-crossing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
It’s been a head-spinner of a week for Erica Kious, who owns eSalon, where Pelosi was caught on camera getting her hair done Monday in violation of San Francisco’s coronavirus rules that still ban indoor operations at salons and barbershops. While Kious became an instant celebrity among conservatives, she told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson she’s become a pariah in San Francisco and among Democrats.
“The hard part of all this is I’ve been in that community for 12 years, and since this happened, I’ve 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,” she said in an interview Wednesday night. “It’s sad that my community is pulling this when they’re saying I threw her under the bus when I didn’t. … I think I’m pretty much done there.”
When the clip of Pelosi, wearing a robe but no mask, turned up on Fox News, President Trump and fellow Republicans excoriated her as a hypocrite. She returned fire Wednesday, insisting she’d been “set up” by the salon owner.
Kious expressed her outrage when the scandal first broke, telling Fox News that a stylist who rents space from her had arranged the visit and that she was outraged Pelosi would violate health orders while so many salons and barbershops obeying the rules are struggling to survive.
According to a GoFundMe campaign launched by former Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian, Kious “is now being forced to shut down and relocate her business and family due to outrage and threats she’s receiving.” More than $100,000 had been pledged as of Thursday evening.
During a video call with reporters Thursday, a visibly shaken and at times tearful Kious read a prepared statement suggesting the idea that the video was a setup is “totally false and outrageous.”
“I don’t owe anyone an apology,” said Kious, who said she was on a plane when the visit occurred and shortly after landing saw the video of Pelosi passing through the salon without a mask. “Mrs. Pelosi owes the entire country an apology.”
Kious said that the reason for releasing the video was that if Pelosi, a woman in a high-risk age group, feels comfortable coming into a San Francisco salon and can be responsible and cautious, other Americans should be able to do the same.
“That was my point,” she said.
In her interview with Carlson, Kious said the economic toll of the pandemic shutdown orders have been devastating.
“We’re pretty much done. We’ve lost at least 60% of our clients. I’ve lost the majority of my staff,” Kious said. “Six months is a long time to be closed down.”
But in a show of solidarity, others are rolling out the welcome mat.
“As a former female small business owner, I can only imagine how crushing these last few months have been,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted. “And now this!? Erika (sic), if you want to run your salon in a state that respects freedom and won’t shut you down, then South Dakota is open for you.”
The wave of conservative support for Kious came as the La Jolla-based lawyer for Jonathan DeNardo, the stylist who worked on Pelosi’s hair, issued a statement Thursday claiming not only did Kious know Pelosi was coming in but that Kious herself had worked in the salon in violation of restrictions.
But the dustup has proven to be a political headache for Pelosi.
From President Trump to local GOP officials such as Harmeet Dhillon, conservatives — including some who have themselves blatantly disregarded science-backed health suggestions like mask wearing and social distancing that Pelosi has advocated vocally — have seized on the incident to hammer the speaker for not taking her own advice.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany played the Salongate clip throughout her Thursday press briefing while roasting the speaker during her opening comments.
While Democrats insist the White House should be focused on the deadly pandemic and racial divisions and protests over police brutality, political analysts are puzzled by the misstep by Pelosi, one of the savviest politicians in Washington.
“Pelosi knows that the Trump campaign isn’t going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Ever. And that they are always on the lookout for proof that liberal leaders actually have two standards: one for them and one for everybody else,” wrote CNN’s Chris Cillizza in a piece titled “Nancy Pelosi just handed Trump a campaign gift.”
“Given all of that, it’s hard to imagine why she would make a mistake like this one,” Cillizza wrote. “It’s a totally unforced error — and one that allows Trump — for a day or two, at least — to change the subject from his handling (or mishandling) of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic that has sickened more than 6 million Americans and killed almost 185,000.”
