House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday commented on her private visit to a San Francisco hair salon earlier this week, in which she received styling indoors despite city-wide restrictions on indoor styling and said it was "clearly a setup," ABC News reports.
In a press conference in San Francisco on coronavirus legislation, Pelosi claimed she was misled by the neighborhood salon. Security footage showed her at one point wearing a mask around her neck instead of over her face.
"I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I've been to, over the years, many times, and that when they said what 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, that was the setup." Pelosi told reporters. "So, I take responsibility for falling for a setup. And that's all I'm going to say on that."
"I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up," she added later.
Asked how she was set up, Pelosi bristled, asking reporters in turn, "Do you have any questions about how people are dying?"
"There's more to this that I'm not going into as to the motivation of a salon to say to me, 'Yes come in' ... it was clearly a set up. I take responsibility for falling for a setup," she added. "I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to for years."
On Tuesday, Fox News aired security footage showing Pelosi walking through eSalon in San Francisco with wet hair, and without a mask over her mouth or nose.
The stylist doing her hair can be seen following her wearing a black face mask.
Salons in San Francisco had been closed since March and were only notified they could reopen on September 1 for outdoor hairstyling services only.
Pelosi's office on Wednesday cited guidance provided to her from the salon and denied she broke their rules, but President Donald Trump called Pelosi out for having a mask under her chin in the now widely-circulated video footage.
"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," Trump said in a tweet Wednesday morning.
Suggesting the event will harm Democrats in the House, the president added, "We will almost certainly take back the House, and send Nancy packing!"
Pelosi in July announced she would make masks mandatory on the House floor, after a GOP lawmaker tested positive for COVID-19.
Though Trump has in the past said he would not wear a mask, he was seen wearing a mask for the first time during a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center days before Pelosi’s announcement on mandatory masks.