You know a Democratic politician has screwed up when not even CNN’s Don Lemon can think of a defense on the fly.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is catching grief this week for patronizing a San Francisco hair salon in direct violation of state and local coronavirus lockdown ordinances — the same ordinances she so vigorously endorses. Footage of the speaker’s illicit trip to the hairstylist leaked to the press Monday. The footage shows Pelosi, who criticized Republican National Convention attendees that same evening for not wearing masks, crossing through the salon without a mask covering her face.
Pelosi has responded to the episode with defiance, adopting the late Washington Mayor Marion Barry’s defense that she is the victim of a setup. Pelosi insists that it is she who is owed an apology. The congresswoman has even enlisted attorneys to go after the salon owner, Erica Kious, alleging that the business owner has for months operated in violation of the state’s COVID-19 guidelines.
Not even Lemon can think of a defense for Pelosi in all of this.
“So, the Speaker of the House is blaming the salon after she didn’t wear a mask indoors,” the CNN anchor said. “The salon owner is denying it was a setup.”
Lemon added, “Regardless, this is — this far into the pandemic, the House Speaker should know what is safe and what isn’t. We should all know. It’s our responsibility. Instead of claiming a setup, it would have been just as easy for the speaker to say, ‘You know what? I messed up. I should have worn a mask indoors.’”
It seems that simply owning up to the double standard and apologizing for setting a poor example on masks would have indeed been the easier and more honest route, but this is Pelosi we are talking about here. She is neither particularly honest nor particularly bright. She is, after all, the mirror image of President Trump.
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to … many times,” Pelosi told reporters this week. “It was a setup, so I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”
The congresswoman added, “I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up.”
As for why she was not wearing her mask indoors, the speaker also said, “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. … And that picture is when I just came out of the bowl.”
Pelosi continued, claiming she has been “inundated” with notes from members of the hair service industry telling her, “Thank you for calling attention to this. We need to get back to work.” She said that “many of them annoyed at the setup, that was there, for a purpose that has nothing to do with ending the crisis.”
Many hairstylists are calling the speaker to thank her for drawing “attention” to their desire to get back to work by violating the state’s COVID-19 lockdown rules? Truly, Pelosi and Trump are perfect matches.
The salon owner, meanwhile, appeared on Fox News this week to accuse the congresswoman of a gross double standard.
“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,” Kious said. “We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right? It is just disturbing.”
