Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi flout COVID-19 safety regulations
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has further damaged the party’s COVID-19 credentials, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was caught without a face mask while at a hair salon.
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The Democrats were reeling after two stunning gaffes left the party’s COVID-19 credentials in tatters.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Thursday flouted COVID-19 social distancing norms and shook hands with an aide on the tarmac as he arrived in Wisconsin to meet with residents of riot-torn Kenosha.
It followed the now infamous maskless hair appointment of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who continues to refuse to apologise for her blunder, now claiming she was “set up”.
“This salon owes me an apology,” Ms Pelosi said. “I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighbourhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times, and when they said we are able to accommodate people one person at a time, and that we can set up that time.
“I trusted that. As it turns out, it was a set up. So I take responsibility for falling for a set up, and that’s all I’m going to say on that.”
In a scene reminiscent of campaigning before the coronavirus pandemic struck in March, Mr Biden extended his hands toward advance staffer Brian McPartlin at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport.
President Trump did not miss the opportunity to slap down Mr Biden over the gaffe.
Joe Hiden’ gets off his airplane, grabs and shakes a rather stunned man’s hand (like in the old days), then touches his (Joe’s) face and mask with the same hand. No crowd, no enthusiasm for Joe today. Law & Order!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2020
Mr Biden, 77, rarely travels due to the pandemic, instead working from a home office in his Wilmington, Delaware, basement. This week, he made another trip, to Pittsburgh, where he slammed President Trump’s handling of anti-police brutality protests.
Biden routinely faults Trump’s handling of COVID-19. Trump, meanwhile, often describes Biden as having impaired mental faculties.
After the handshake, Biden met with the family of Jacob Blake, 29, whose shooting by police and possible paralysis last month sparked rioting and arson that ravaged the small city. He also addressed a meeting of community leaders, where he spoke with a mask but at one point apologised for encroaching on his audience’s space.
As president, Mr Trump was criticised in March for continuing to shake hands instead of adopting the “chicken wing” elbow bump encouraged by health officials and readily embraced by Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump has rarely shaken hands in recent months, and publicly mused about permanently doing away with the social nicety, to guard against germs even when the pandemic passes.
Mr Biden’s fellow Democrat Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, cancelled a press briefing in the US as she continued to refuse to apologise for her infamous maskless hair appointment. She claimed she was “set up”.
“Pelosi cancels scheduled news conference,” tweeted GOP spokesperson Elizabeth Harrington, who then posted a gif of a woman getting a pedicure on Twitter.
News of the cancelled conference comes after California business owner Erica Kious claimed she received “death threats” after maskless Pelosi’s unauthorised visit to her salon on Monday.
But on Wednesday, the House Speaker’s stylist Johnathan DeNardo claimed his boss approved the House Speaker’s infamous appointment in San Francisco.
Kious insisted she had no prior knowledge of the appointment after Pelosi accused the businesswoman of orchestrating a “set-up” and demanded an apology.
Ms Kious told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson “the appointment was already booked so there was no way I could have set that up”.
But in a statement issued through Mr DeNardo’s lawyers, the stylist claimed his boss approved the appointment a day before – and even launched a “vitriolic and incendiary” attack on the senior Democrat.
The statement said: “In response to press inquiries on the matter, Mr DeNardo can confirm that he indeed did provide professional stylist services to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) on August 31, 2020, at the ‘eSalon,’ located at 2288 Union Street in San Francisco, California.
“Mr DeNardo, at all times, took all requisite safety measures throughout his appointment with Speaker Pelosi, including sanitation of all service areas and wearing of CDC-recommended protective equipment, and thereafter ensured the premises were similarly sanitised following Speaker Pelosi’s departure.
BIDEN MEETS FAMILY OF BLACK MAN SHOT SEVEN TIMES
Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden has met with the family of a black man shot seven times by police in Winsconsin.
Mr Biden claims he was invited to Wisconsin by the local Governor Tony Evers – the same man who discouraged President Donald Trump from visiting Wisconsin.
Mr Biden had a private meeting with Mr Blake in hospital that lasted about an hour when he arrived in Wisconsin.
Black Lives Matter protesters blocking the street outside a church which was next on the Biden itinerary caused a chaotic arrival for the Democratic candidate.
Chaotic arrival at #kenosha church for @JoeBiden - @BLM protestors crowded the street for several minutes before his motorcade could get through pic.twitter.com/UrZB9uZW39
— Sarah Blake (@sarahblakemedia) September 3, 2020
Kenosha police repeatedly tried to clear the crowd of dozens of chanting protesters from the street outside Grace Lutheran Church.
The Biden campaign did not pre-publicise his itinerary and media outnumbered supporters and protesters.
Local retail worker Demarcus Hunter, 26, said he had come to the church because he lived down the road and wanted to support Biden because as a young black man he felt “constant fear” from police and believed that change was necessary.
“I’ve had issues with the police, and everything and confrontations with the police and I have learned just not to basically try to abide by everything that they say and sometimes when you do that you might not have a good outcome,” he said.
Much more low key response to â¦@JoeBidenâ© #kenosha visit than â¦@realDonaldTrumpâ© - this is deliberate, Biden wanting to avoid a circus, but the media pack easily outnumbers supporters here â¦@theheraldsunâ© â¦@dailytelegraphâ© pic.twitter.com/4WVtXgWdiK
— Sarah Blake (@sarahblakemedia) September 3, 2020
“You never feel like you’re safe, even when it’s a basic traffic stop, when anything can go left when you feel like that constantly there’s no words, it’s just constant fear.
“I think this is going to change things it’s not just thappening here it’s happening in a lot of places.”
Maternity nurse Polly Timmerman had travelled 20 minutes from her home to support Biden.
“This is a very nice community with a lot of supportive people and it was very unfortunate what happened here,” she said.
“With Jacob Blake I just don’t understand it, to me it is just an atrocious thing that happened to him.”
Black Lives Matter protestors say they are marching ahead of #JoeBiden in Kenosha so he “keeps his promiseâ€. Biden has just had a private meeting with Jacob Blake in hospital and he’s on his way to the Grace Lutheran Church. @dailytelegraph @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/6ivuJgXhgQ
— Sarah Blake (@sarahblakemedia) September 3, 2020
Mr Biden met with the family of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, a Biden campaign spokesman said.
The former vice president met with Jacob Blake Senior, the father of the 29-year-old black man shot seven times by a police officer in front of his young children in late August, as well as some other members of the Blake family.
Mr Biden and wife Dr Jill Biden wrapped up their private meeting with Blake family and their attorneys in the early afternoon. The meeting lasted one hour and the media was kept on a bus for the duration.
The Biden team said they will not be providing a readout of the meeting.
The meeting marked the first time the Democratic presidential candidate spoke to Blake’s family in person. Last Wednesday, he and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke to Mr Blake’s relatives by phone.
Mr Blake Senior called Democratic running mates “so comforting that you almost forgot how the situation was really playing out”.
Mr Biden is in Wisconsin with wife, Dr Jill Biden.
The 2020 Democratic nominee said, “I’m not going to do anything other than meet with community leaders, as well as business people and other folks in law enforcement, to start to talk about what has to be done.”
“I’m not going to tell Kenosha what to do, but what we’ll do together,” he added.
Mr Biden’s decision comes at the behest of city leaders and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, the basement candidate claimed.
“There’s been overwhelming requests that I do come. What we want to do is we’ve got to heal. We got to put things together, bring people together,” the former vice president said.
Curiously, Mr Evers openly discouraged President Trump from making a visit earlier this week, which he opted to make anyway.
Mr Biden has famously waged his presidential campaign from his basement.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has by far the worst record on COVID where 11,000 people died in nursing homes, has meanwhile said Mr Trump will need an Army if he wants to return to New York.
The governor called an emergency press briefing Wednesday to bash the president.
“He better have an army if he thinks he’s gonna walk down the street in New York. New Yorkers don’t want to have anything to do with him,” Cuomo said, in an apparent threat to the commander-in-chief’s safety. “He can’t have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City, people don’t want to have anything to do with him.”
PELOSI DEMANDS APOLOGY OVER HAIR DEBACLE
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, authorised 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 authorised Mr. DeNardo to proceed with Speaker Pelosi’s appointment.”
A mask-less Ms 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 apologise, claiming she was “set up” by Kious — who denied the accusation.
TRUMP ENCOURAGES AMERICANS TO VOTE
US President Donald Trump has encouraged voters to cast a vote via the mail-in ballot system before casting an in-person ballot on election day.
“Let them send it [the mail ballot] in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote [twice],” Mr Trump said.
“So that’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do.”
Casting multiple votes is illegal in the United States.
A record number of Americans are expected to cast their ballot by mail this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the risk of attending polling places in person on election day.
Mr Trump has been an outspoken critic of the mail-in system, saying it would lead to “catastrophic” outcomes and would make the US “a laughing stock”.
BIDEN TO VISIT KENOSHA DESPITE LOCAL PUSHBACK
Joe Biden is set to travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin despite pushback from locals.
Following the visit of President Donald Trump earlier this week, the Kenosha chapter of the The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People said visits are not what the city needs right now as civil unrest continues following the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Blake was shot seven times in the back by Kenosha Police while his three children were watching on in the car, and now fights for his life in hospital.
Following the shooting, protests broke out across the city, which later lead to looting and rioting, and further shootings by a 17-year-old boy who had travelled across state lines to stand against protesters.
When asked why he was travelling to Wisconsin against NAACP advice, Mr Biden said he had received “an overwhelming request” from the people of Kenosha to visit.
“What we want to do is — we’ve got to heal. We’ve got to put things together. Bring people together,” Mr Biden said.
Mr Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, are set to meet with members of Blake’s family before holding a community meeting to “address the challenges we face”.
The news of Biden’s visit comes as the US Department of Homeland Security defended its decision to delay the release of an intelligence report that suggests the Russian government is set to portray the former Vice President as mentally unstable and unfit for the top job in the lead up to the November election.
PELOSI CAUGHT BREAKING COVID ADVICE
US President Donald Trump’s most vocal critic, Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, has been humiliated by the release of images showing her failing to wear a face mask in a salon in California.
She later claimed she was tricked into breaking coronavirus rules to get her hair done in a salon “set-up.”
Ms Pelosi was criticised for getting her hair done in a closed California salon on Monday without a mask – but now, she wants the hairdressers to apologise.
The House Speaker said the whole thing was a “set-up,” claiming the owner of eSalon, Erica Kious, misled her.
“I think that this salon owes me an apology, for setting me up,” Ms Pelosi whined.
“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighbourhood salon that I’ve been to over the years many times when they said we’re able to accommodate people one person at a time.”
Ms Pelosi maintained that her regular stylist who comes to her home was unavailable so she contacted the salon in question, who said one customer at a time was OK.
Donald Trump has since vowed to “send Nancy Pelosi packing” as she was caught flouting COVID rules at the hair salon, with her mask around her neck.
The president issued a stinging rebuke of the House Speaker on Twitter, calling out her supposed hypocrisy.
“Crazy Nancy Pelosi is being decimated for having a beauty parlour opened, when all others are closed, and for not wearing a Mask – despite constantly lecturing everyone else,” he raged.
The Beauty Parlor owner must really dislike Crazy Nancy Pelosi. Turning her in, on tape, is a really big deal. She probably treats him like she treats everyone else...And she strongly supported a Kennedy who just lost in, of all places, Massachusetts!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2020
Images of Ms Pelosi not wearing a mask has seen her branded a “hypocrite” after she was seen getting her hair washed and blow-dried in a shuttered San Francisco salon.
In startling security footage obtained by Fox News, the House Speaker can be seen walking through the salon on Monday afternoon US time with wet hair and not wearing a mask.
The eSalon stylist can be seen following her wearing a black face mask.
The images sparked outrage among conservatives who were quick to point out Ms Pelosi – who has slammed the president for not wearing a mask – was breaking the city’s coronavirus-prevention rules.
The Beauty Parlor owner must really dislike Crazy Nancy Pelosi. Turning her in, on tape, is a really big deal. She probably treats him like she treats everyone else...And she strongly supported a Kennedy who just lost in, of all places, Massachusetts!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2020
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted: “Do as I say, not as I do.”
“Speaker Pelosi has pushed policies that would keep our economy closed and our small businesses shut down,” Senate Republicans tweeted.
They then added: “But for herself? A salon visit whenever she pleases.”
The Conservative group @ReaganBattalion posted: “Your child can’t go to school, your business has been forced closed for months … but @SpeakerPelosi’s hair will be made, because her hair is more essential than your life.”
Salons in the city had been closed since March and were only notified that they could reopen on September 1 for outdoor hairstyling services only.
The salon owner told Fox that she has independent stylists that work for her and rent out chairs in her salon.
Erica Kious said: “One of the stylists who rents a chair from me contacted me Sunday night.”
According to the outlet the message said: “I’ll be there at 2:45 tomorrow. Pelosi assistant just messaged me to do her hair” to which Kious replied “Pelosi?”
“I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen? What do I do?” Kious told the outlet.
“It was a slap in the face that she [Pelosi] 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 added that she “can’t believe” that Pelosi was not wearing a mask and added: “We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right? It is just disturbing.”
Kious also said that Ms Pelosi received a wash and blow-dry, but said that “you’re not supposed to blow dry hair” according to the coronavirus safety guidelines.
“We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t – it’s a feeling – a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down.
“I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen. I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income.”
She added: “The fact that they did this, and she came in, it’s like a slap in the face.”
The images are particularly shocking as the House Speaker has regularly slammed the president for not wearing a mask.
She has also cited US Centers for Disease Control guidelines recommending Americans wear face masks in public, especially when physical distancing measures are difficult.
Just this week, she declared the President had “slapped science right in the face” by allowing an audience of mainly massless invitees on the White House lawn to watch his speech to the Republican convention.
And after the President was pictured not wearing a mask in May, Pelosi was quick to quip: “It’s a vanity thing, I guess, with him.”
In July, Ms Pelosi announced all members will be required to wear a mask when voting on the House floor.
Failure to wear would be “serious breach of decorum” for which members could be removed from the chamber, she warned
“It’s a sign of respect for the health, safety and wellbeing of others present in the chamber and in surrounding areas,” she said.
Ms Pelosi’s spokesman insisted she was complying with the rules as told to her.
TRUMP LABELS RIOTERS ‘TERRORISTS’ AS TENSIONS RISE
President Donald Trump labelled the Kenosha rioters “domestic terrorists” and said the violence in other American cities would stop if their Democrat leaders allowed the National Guard to deploy there.
Mr Trump thanked local police and emergency workers, saying they had done their best but been overwhelmed in the unrest that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake.
He said the unrest ended “within an hour” of Wisconsin’s governor accepting federal help.
“This ended immediately,” Mr Trump said of the looting and arson in the small city.
“And it should be that way all over. Chicago could use a hand. New York could use a hand.
“Although, I’ll tell you … New York’s finest and Chicago police department, they do a great job, but they’re not allowed to do their work. “
Among the crowd who gathered to cheer Mr Trump’s visit was single mother Melissa Sierra, who brought her young daughter and nephew to watch the motorcade.
“I came to support our president who came when we needed help and support and our governor failed to protect my family,” Ms Sierra, 29 said.
Ms Sierra, a hairdresser who described herself as politically “down the middle”, said she believed out of town trouble makers from the far right and the far left had turned Kenosha into a “war zone” over two nights last week.
“It was frightening, I was up until 5 every morning listening to the police scanners as I am the one here to protect my child,” she said.
“I feel like our city would be completely to shreds if the President didn’t send the troops here.
“I never thought something like this could happen in Kenosha.
“This is a very loving, safe community.”
Retired surgical nurse Mary Thomsen also said it was shocking that Kenosha had been so damaged.
“It breaks my heart. This is a very happy town,” she said.
Some of those cheering Mr Trump were also carrying posters in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17 year old charged with double murder after firing an AR15 at two protesters.
“Kyle was acting in self defence. He should never have been arrested,” said Ivana Mendoza.
“They are calling him the Kenosha Kid. He was just trying to help a business owner protect his business.”
TRUMP’S VISIT TO KENOSHA RAISES TENSIONS
US President Donald Trump’s visit to the strife torn midwestern city of Kenosha has been greeted with a mix of warmth and dismay.
Family and supporters of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times by a police officer, gathered at the scene of his arrest as Mr Trump arrived.
#Kenosha locals say “thank you for saving our town†as #realDonaldTrump motorcade passes. Anyone who thinks this election race is over is kidding themselves. â¦@couriermailâ© â¦@dailytelegraphâ© â¦@theheraldsunâ© pic.twitter.com/gW6LZLUPBy
— Sarah Blake (@sarahblakemedia) September 1, 2020
In downtown Kenosha, where almost every business and many houses were still boarded up following last week’s riot, dozens of Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters traded slogans.
Local brothers Tony and Steven Fani waved a Trump 22 flag and said they were there to thank the president for sending in the National Guard to calm two nights of rioting last week.
“They took over our town and there was a point we were frightened for our families,” said Steven Fani.
“It’s getting so we can’t recognise this country now.”
Mr Fani said he and his wife had recently applied for gun licenses because they hadn’t felt safe before the troubles started.
“It’s good we got them because now we know we can protect ourselves if the police lose control again.”
Civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson and Mr Blake’s family addressed a community meeting where they said they didn’t want the president to visit.
“We don’t need more pain and division from a President set on advancing his campaign at the expense of our city,” said Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake.
“We need justice and relief for our community.”
Two people were killed in violence following the shooting of Blake, a 29 year old black man.
Mr Trump was to visit an emergency management centre and tour some damages businesses.
It came as Mr Trump denied recent reports he had experienced heart troubles.
NO STROKES, SAYS TRUMP
Mr Trump denied that he had suffered “ministrokes” after rumours swirled that a new book would question a trip he made to a hospital last year.
The book, by New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt, reportedly claims that Mr Trump “suffered a series of ministrokes.”
Regarding the book, Vice President Mike Pence was told to be ready to take over should the president need to undergo a procedure that required anaesthesia.
Trump, 74, tweeted on Tuesday morning a denial of the rumours, which stemmed from an unplanned visit he made to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland in November 2019.
“It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favourite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of ministrokes,” he tweeted.
“Never happened to THIS candidate – FAKE NEWS. Perhaps they are referring to another candidate from another Party!” he added, taking a shot at the mental state of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, a common Trump campaign tactic.
Physician to the President Sean Conley issued a statement shortly after Trump’s tweets denying that he is suffering from any health issues.
“I can confirm that President Trump has not experienced nor been evaluated for a cerebrovascular accident (stroke), transient ischemic attack (mini stroke), or any acute cardiovascular emergencies, as have been incorrectly reported by the media,” the statement says.
GAFFE-PRONE BIDEN LAUNCHES ‘STRANGE’ ATTACK ON POLICE
Gaffe-prone Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has launched a bizarre attack on America’s police forces in one of his first campaign appearances in months.
It came after a series of recent blunders, including last week when he confused black shooting victim Jacob Blake with a white teenage vigilante during an interview.
He has previously said 120 million Americans have died from COVID-19, when the actual number is now around 180,000, and that 150 million Americans died from guns — which would be almost half the country’s population.
When asked about Mr Blake, whose shooting in Kenosha sparked the most recent protests in the US, Mr Biden appeared to think the question was about accused teen killer Kyle Rittenhouse.
“I don‘t know enough to know whether that 17-year-old kid, exactly what he did, but allegedly he’s part of a militia coming out of Illinois,” Mr Biden said.
On his return to the campaign trail on Monday, local time, Mr Biden appeared to say that police were more to blame than left-wing protesters for causing the recent chaos in America’s cities.
Speaking in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Mr Biden also tried to blame Donald Trump, saying the President was responsible for the troubles following the shooting of Mr Blake in Wisconsin last week.
“He’s stoking violence in our cities. That is the tragic fact of the matter about this perilous hour in our nation,” Mr Biden said.
In response, Mr Trump laid into his opponent on social media, saying Mr Biden was “blaming the police far more than he’s blaming the rioters, anarchists, agitators and looters, which he could never blame or he would lose the Radical Left”.
He also accused Mr Biden of sharing the same agenda as Antifa — a term for an anti-fascist group, which he called a “criminal organisation”.
Mr Trump said Democrat mayors were in charge of the worst-affected cities.
“Even his strange speech today that he made in Pittsburgh, he didn’t mention the fact, and he didn’t mention the far left,” Mr Trump said.
“Mostly, (he) seemed to blame the police and law enforcement.”
Mr Trump also refused to condemn Rittenhouse, the accused white vigilante teenager who is charged with double murder in Kenosha after allegedly shooting two men with a semiautomatic rifle during a violent protest.
“He was trying to get away from them, I guess,” the President said, implying the 17-year-old acted in self-defence
During his speech, Mr Biden referred to “violence we’ve seen again and again of unwarranted police shootings and excessive force”.
He criticised the “senseless violence of looting and burning and destruction of property”, but he did not refer to left-wing protesters.
Earlier, he tweeted that “more cops have died from COVID this year than have been killed on patrol”.
Originally published as Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi flout COVID-19 safety regulations