San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) refused to overtly condemn House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for visiting an area salon for a wash and blowout despite local coronavirus restrictions, telling ABC7 that “we have a dictator who is running this country and Nancy Pelosi is at the forefront fighting against this person everyday.”

While she said that she is “not trying to excuse what happened,” Breed did not clearly condemn the Speaker for breaking local coronavirus rules and argued that the entire situation has been blown out of proportion.

“We have a terrorist, we have a dictator who is running this country, and Nancy Pelosi is at the forefront fighting against this person everyday, you know, and I’m not trying to excuse what happened,” Mayor Breed said.

“I’m just saying that to allow an issue like this to turn our city upside down when we got folks who are homeless, we’ve got people who can’t open their business, including these salons. I understand,” she said.

When asked about a potential apology from Pelosi, Breed deflected.

“Let me just be clear. I can be responsible for my behavior. I can’t tell other people what to do,” she said.

Erica Kious, the salon owner at the forefront of the controversy, told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson on Wednesday that she has been on the receiving end of “hate, text messages, death threats” since exposing the Speaker’s salon day.

During a Zoom presser on Thursday, Kious denied Pelosi’s accusations of a setup, explaining that she hoped the story would encourage leaders to reopen businesses, which have been shuttered for months.

“If a woman in a high-risk age group who spends much of her time on TV warning about the dangers of COVID-19 feels safe and comfortable in a San Francisco salon and can be responsible for being cautious and mindful, why can’t the rest of San Francisco, and the rest of America, do that, too?” she asked.

That same day, a group of demonstrators hung blowdryers and curlers outside of the Speaker’s San Francisco residence in protest:

While Mayor Breed said she understands their frustrations, she told ABC7 that it is “really time for us to move on.”