The owner of e Salon SF, Erica Kious, told Fox News that the appointment had been arranged by a stylist who rented a chair at her establishment. “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,” Ms. Kious said, referring to Ms. Pelosi.
Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Ms. Pelosi, said that she “always wears a mask and complies with local Covid requirements.” In this case, he said, “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.”
Mask requirements and reopening plans have both become flash points in the culture wars over the response to the coronavirus in the United States. Many people have resisted face coverings, including some Republican leaders who viewed mask requirements as a threat to personal liberty.
Calls to the salon’s two locations went unanswered on Wednesday, and Ms. Kious could not immediately be reached for comment. Amy Tarkanian, a conservative commentator and former chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party, tweeted about a crowdsourcing fund-raiser for Ms. Kious on Wednesday and said the salon owner had told her she was receiving death threats and had been forced to relocate.
Reporting was contributed by Livia Albeck-Ripka, Liz Alderman, Ilise S. Carter, Choe Sang-Hun, Patricia Cohen, Ben Casselman, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Jacey Fortin, Michael Gold, Christina Goldbaum, Kathleen Gray, Ethan Hauser, Mike Ives, Jennifer Jett, Juliana Kim, Isabella Kwai, Sharon LaFraniere, Raphael Minder, Richard C. Paddock, Matt Phillips, Campbell Robertson, Amanda Rosa, Eleanor Stanford, Jim Tankersley, Ian Teh, Katie Thomas, Lucy Tompkins, Neil Vigdor, Allyson Waller, Lauren Wolfe, Katherine J. Wu and Carl Zimmer.
