San Francisco salon owner Erica Kious has announced that she is closing her business after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit last week, according to Fox News.
"I am actually done in San Francisco and closing my doors, unfortunately...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 told Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, a fundraiser announced by Kious to help her relocate the business after the incident has reached its goal of $300,000.
Pelosi accused Kious of having set her up after a video of her entering the salon without a mask emerged online, sparking public criticism, with people calling the speaker a 'hypocrite' amid her regular calls to take the pandemic seriously. Pelosi also claimed that the shop owner was "allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business” and thus formally permitted her to make the solo appointment.
The businesswoman denied the accusations, adding that Pelosi's claims were false. She also said that she was renting out chairs to independent stylists and did not leak the video for "political reasons".
Pelosi's visit to the salon came amid frequent accusations that Democrats have been levelling at President Trump over what they describe as his team's poor response to the coronavirus pandemic. They repeatedly slammed POTUS for not wearing a mask in public and for not heeding the so-called scientific advice concerning the virus.
Commenting on Pelosi's visit to a hair salon, Trump tweeted: "Crazy Nancy Pelosi said she was “set up” by the beauty parlor owner when she improperly had the salon opened (and didn’t wear a MASK!). Does anyone want a Speaker of the House who can be so easily SET UP?"