#Nancy Pelosi’s stylist says appointment was ‘political’ setup by salon owner

The stylist who did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hair says the appointment was, in fact, a set up by the San Francisco salon owner, given the woman’s “political leanings.”

Jonathan DeNardo released a lengthy statement defending Pelosi and claiming Erica Kious, who owns eSalon, authorized the Monday hair appointment in a phone call two days prior.

“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 [sic] and San Francisco Mayor London Breed,” DeNardo said through his lawyer. “Ultimately, Ms. Kious authorized Mr. DeNardo to proceed with Speaker Pelosi’s appointment.”

A mask-less Pelosi was caught on video leaked to Fox News flouting coronavirus rules at the salon, which is barred from allowing customers indoors as per San Francisco regulations.

The California congresswoman, 80, has refused to apologize, claiming she was “set up” by Kious — who denied the accusation Wednesday night.

DeNardo, who’s worked at eSalon for six years, also claimed Kious has been operating her business illegally during the pandemic since at least April.

He said the owner can be seen in pictures and on video doing clients’ hair, “ignoring social distancing guidelines, and not wearing protective equipment (masks), as recently as a few days prior to Speaker Pelosi’s arrival at eSalon.”

“What’s more, Ms. Kious has also been actively encouraging and almost forcing stylists who operate at eSalon to violate such orders for her own financial benefit in the form of receiving lease payments,” DeNardo added.

He concluded, “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. Mr. DeNardo’s name has now been dragged through the mud for simply following Ms. Kious’ recommendations.”

In an interview Wednesday night, Kious — who says she rents out chairs to independent stylists — denied leaking the footage to the press over “political” reasons.

“I just thought about my staff and people not being able to work and make money and provide for their families, and if she is in there comfortably without a mask and feeling safe, then why are we shut down?” Kious said. “Why am I not able to have clients come in?”