Nancy Pelosi’s stylist comes to her defence

Nancy Pelosi’s stylist has defended the House Speaker, suggesting the salon owner had deliberately set her up and had authorized the Democrat’s hair appointment.

Stylist Jonathan DeNardo also alleged the salon owner has been operating during the stay-at-home orders as far back as April.

Jonathan DeNardo, the San Francisco cosmetologist who did Nancy Pelosi’s hair before the city allowed salons to operate indoors, released a statement through his lawyer on Wednesday.

The hair stylist appeared to support Pelosi’s accusation that she was ‘set up’ by the salon. 

‘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 set-up of Speaker Pelosi for her own vain aspirations,’ the statement read. 

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

It comes after Speaker Pelosi said Wednesday that she fell for a ‘set up’ by the salon and added the salon owes her an apology. 

The statement confirmed that DeNardo had provided stylist services to Pelosi at eSalon on August 31 and claimed that salon owner Erica Kious had given permission for the appointment. 

It read: ‘Mr. DeNardo received advance approval from Ms. Kious the day prior to the appointment during a telephone discussion on August 29, 2020 at 9:26 pm, wherein Mr. DeNardo advised Ms.Kious that he would not proceed with Speaker Pelosi’s appointment without Ms. Kious’ authorization. 

‘Ms. Kious took special interest in the appointment during this telephone call, wherein she made several vitriolic and incendiary comments about Speaker Pelosi and her purported responsibility for temporarily suspending operations of Ms. Kious’ business, despite such orders actually being put into place not by Speaker Pelosi, but by Governor Gavin Newsome and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. 

‘Ultimately, Ms. Kious authorized Mr. DeNardo to proceed with Speaker Pelosi’s appointment.’

The statement, issued by lawyer Matthew Soleimanpour, also alleged that Mr DeNardo had proof that Ms Kious had been operating her salon as far back as April, in defiance of the state’s stay-at-home orders. 

‘This office is in possession of photographs, videos and witness information that Ms. Kious, contrary to her priorstatements to the press, has actually been operating her business during the stay-at-home orders and similarexecutive orders limiting in-store operations since as far back as April 2020,’ it read.   

The owner of the salon where Nancy Pelosi was filmed getting a blow dry without a mask in defiance of COVID lockdown rules denied setting the Democrat up. 

Erica Kious, the owner of the e Salon SF, told Tucker Carlson she has received death threats in the wake of exposing the House Speaker’s trip to her business on Monday.

She said: ‘[Pelosi] had called the stylist, or her assistant did, and had made the appointment so the appointment was already booked so there was no way I could have set that up. 

‘And 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’s absolutely false.’ 

Speaker Pelosi said Wednesday that she fell for a ‘set up’ by the salon and added the salon owes her an apology. 

San Francisco beauty parlors weren’t supposed to open until September 1, the day after the speaker had her treatment. Additionally, the California Department of Public Health requires face masks to be worn in public indoor places.

Speaking Wednesday Kious added: ‘For the past six months, we are pretty much done. We have lost at least 60 per cent of our clients, I’ve lost the majority of my staff. So six months is a long time to be closed down. 

‘Just to see her come in, especially her not wearing a mask, that’s what really got to me. This isn’t political, it’s the fact she came in and didn’t have a mask on.

‘If she is in there comfortably then why are we shut down?’ 

Kious, who rents out chairs to different stylists, said since the release of the footage Tuesday evening she has received threats to burn down her salon. 

Pelosi held a press conference in San Francisco on Wednesday to address her controversial visit after a report from Fox News revealed she had visited the e Salon SF in her district on Monday for a wash and blow-out.

She was seen on the salon’s security footage walking around without a mask, an image that went viral on social media and resulted in her getting mocked by many people, including President Donald Trump.

‘I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighborhood salon I’ve been to over the years many times, and when they said we’re able to accommodate people, one person at a time, and that we can set up that time, I trusted that. As it turns out, it was a setup,’ she said. 

‘It was a set up, and I take responsibility for falling for a setup,’ she added. 

Trump tweeted: ‘Crazy Nancy Pelosi is being decimated for having a beauty parlor opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a Mask–despite constantly lecturing everyone else. 

‘We will almost certainly take back the House, and send Nancy packing!’

‘The Beauty Parlor owner must really dislike Crazy Nancy Pelosi. Turning her in, on tape, is a really big deal,’ Trump added. ‘She probably treats him like she treats everyone else…And she strongly supported a Kennedy who just lost in, of all places, Massachusetts!’ 

But Pelosi threatened there could be more to the situation than the camera revealed.

‘There’s more to this that I’m not going to ask to the motivation for a salon to say to me, ‘Yes, come in’ and then they go for me. It was clearly a set up,’ she said. 

‘I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up,’ she added. 

And she said she wasn’t wearing a face mask because she just had her hair washed, asking the reporters questioning her if they wore a face mask when washing their hair.

‘I just had my hair washed. I don’t wear a mask when I’m washing my hair. Do you wear a mask when you’re washing your hair? I always wear a mask,’ she said. ‘And that picture is when I just came out of the bowl.’ 

 New restrictions in San Francisco allow hair salons to operate outdoors, but certain procedures – such as shampooing, color and chemical treatments – are still not allowed.  

Ian Smith fought to keep his New Jersey gym open after Gov. Phil Murphy shuttered non essential businesses there. He told The Washington Examiner: ‘This is not about public health. It’s about control and power.  

‘These people think they are above the law. These people need to be put in their place. They are out of control. They think that they are rulers. They forget that they are elected public servants. Things need to change, and now.’  

Smith Salon owner Wendy Diaz told Fox News: ‘I just found it so hypocritical because we have been told that if we open prior to us being able to open in Lodi, that we would get our license revoked. It was pretty much pure shock.’ 

Shayana Flick, who owns ReWAXation, added: ‘To see Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done indoors was absolutely a slap in the face to every single person in our personal care industry throughout California that has been struggling and fighting to work inside for the last six months.

‘Not only that, it was a slap in the face to every single small business owner in our industry that has been forced to close down businesses for good over the last six months because of the arbitrary guidelines put in place by the California elected officials.’  

Pelosi’s office hinted there was more to the story than originally appeared when the footage from inside the salon was revealed on Fox News.  

Her Deputy Chief of Staff Drew Hammill said in a statement Tuesday that ‘the speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements.’ 

He added that the speaker followed the rules as they were presented to her by the stylist.

‘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,’ Hammill told Fox News. ‘The speaker complies with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.’ 

Her staff told CNN that the speaker has a regular stylist who typically goes to Pelosi’s house to do her hair. But that person was not available on Monday so referred Pelosi’s staff to a stylist at eSalon because it is where Pelosi’s regular stylist used to work.