Erica Kious, the San Francisco salon owner who received backlash for publicizing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s mask-less, illegal visit to her business in early September is closing her doors after receiving backlash from Pelosi and others for sharing the security camera footage.
“I started to just get a ton of phone calls, text messages, emails, all my Yelp reviews… saying that they hope I go under and that I fail. So just a lot of negativity towards my business,” Kious said on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Kious, a single mother of two, said that because she’s received so much negative push-back, she is nervous to reopen again for fear that something might happen.
“I’m actually afraid to go back… It’s a little scary and sad,” she told Carlson. “I do have a lot of positive calls and text messages from clients. But other than that, nothing but negativity.”
Despite San Francisco COVID-19 mandates requiring a face covering indoors, Pelosi booked an appointment with ESalonSF in early September to receive a blow-out.
Even though she previously urged Americans to wear a mask, follow CDC guidelines, and abide by local orders that shuttered some businesses for six months, Pelosi can be seen on security cameras walking around inside the salon without a mask.
Instead if taking responsibility for her actions, however, Pelosi only took responsibility for “falling for a setup” and demanded an apology from the salon owner.
“I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up,” she added.
Kious defended herself against Pelosi’s accusations on an segment of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in early September calling them “absolutely false” and claiming that “there was no way I could’ve set that up.”
Kious also hinted that she might have to close down because of all of the negative commentary and feedback she received from the incident.
“It’s just sad that my community is pulling this … saying that I threw her under the bus when I didn’t. So that’s hurtful, but yeah, I think I’m pretty much done now,” she added.
Many people called out Pelosi’s hypocrisy, saying that it was unfair for her to act as an exception to the same rules she has recently been promoting.
According to the New York Post, Kious’s Go Fund Me “reached its goal of $300,000” just a few days after the incident occurred.
In the segment on Wednesday night, Carlson pointed out that MSNBC interviewed Pelosi for almost 15 minutes this week but did not ask her about the salon visit.
