The fury over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s visit to a San Francisco hair salon this week may appear overblown on the surface, but her disregard for local coronavirus ordinances represents a troubling mentality among Democratic leaders that’s been “cursing American politics” for generations, Ben Shapiro told his podcast listeners Thursday.

“That sort of Marie Antoinette feeling, that is deeply offputting to most Americans and that’s why Nancy Pelosi, what she did here, I understand that it’s not a world breaking story,” the “Ben Shapiro Show” host said, “but it is indicative of a mentality that is cursing American politics and has lead to tremendous splits in American life.”

PELOSI FIGHTS BACK, DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM SALON OWNER

Pelosi’s visit was captured on security cameras, with footage showing her walking through the salon with wet hair and without a mask over her mouth or nose. The stylist doing her hair can be seen in the video following her through the building while wearing a black face mask.

Salons in San Francisco had been closed since March and could only reopen for outdoor hairstyling services on Sept. 1. Pelosi claimed to have understood that the coronavirus restrictions allowed for a one-on-one appointment indoors, and demanded an “apology” from the salon owner for staging what she called a “set up.”

“The common theme of modern American politics is the people constantly being disappointed by politicians who suggest that they are one of the people…and then when it comes time to actually apply the rules, they don’t apply the rules to themselves,” Shapiro said.

EXCLUSIVE: PELOSI USED SHUTTERED SAN FRANCISCO HAIR SALON FOR A BLOW-OUT, OWNER CALLS IT ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’

He went on, “There are a lot of things that the elitists can do that you simply cannot do.

“This is particularly true when it comes to COVID policy where elitists…will tell you that you can’t hold a funeral for a parent that died of COVID, but you can definitely hold a protest about systemic American injustice.”

The latest incident with the Calirnfoia Democrat further proves that those “top of the meritocracy…want to shut the door behind them,” Shapiro said, “and then run everybody else’s life from atop that pyramid.”

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany played footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the shuttered San Francisco salon on loop Thursday, as she said the House speaker “ought to apologize” to Americans.

“Nancy Pelosi was not in the halls of Congress when I asked where she was, she was not working in good faith to make a deal for the American people,” McEnany said during a White House briefing. “Nope, Nancy Pelosi was found in San Francisco, at a hair salon, where she was indoors, even though salons in California are only open for outdoor service.”

Salons in San Francisco have been closed since March and could reopen only for outdoor hairstyling services on Sept. 1.

PELOSI FIGHTS BACK: ‘THE SALON OWES ME AN APOLOGY FOR SETTING ME UP’

“Apparently, the rules do not apply to Speaker Nancy Pelosi; she wants small businesses to stay shut down, but only reopened for her convenience” the press secretary continued. “Do as I say, not as I do, says Nancy Pelosi.”

She added that the California Democrat was “holding up” $1.3 trillion in coronavirus relief for Americans.

“Before she skipped town to violate her state’s health guidelines, Pelosi proposed a bill,” McEnany said. She noted that the HEROES Act, the House’s coronavirus relief proposal, did not contain any additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, “funding that would help the very small business she has bizarrely accused of plotting against her.

In May, the House passed the HEROES Act, with a pricetag of $3 trillion, and the Senate proposed the HEALS act, coronavirus relief that would cost $1 trillion.

Congress could not come to an agreement between the two packages and further coronavirus relief still hangs in limbo. Pelosi said that Democrats were willing to compromise at $2 trillion for the fourth coronavirus stimulus package, but that the Trump administration rejected their offer. She said coronavirus relief talks would not resume until the Republicans agreed to offer $2 trillion.

A defiant Pelosi on Wednesday claimed she was “set up” and that a hair salon in San Francisco “owes” her an “apology” after it was revealed the California Democrat visited the business despite local ordinances keeping salons closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pelosi added she has been to the salon “over the years many times.”

“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I have been to many times,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday. “When they said they could accommodate people one at a time, and we can set up that time, I trusted that.”

She added: “As it turns out, it was a setup. So I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”

“The salon owes me an apology for setting me up,” she added.

Pelosi, on Wednesday, downplayed the fact that she didn’t wear a mask in the salon.

EXCLUSIVE: PELOSI USED SHUTTERED SAN FRANCISCO HAIR SALON FOR A BLOW-OUT, OWNER CALLS IT ‘SLAP IN THE FACE’

“I just had my hair washed. I don’t wear my mask when I’m washing my hair,” she said. “Do you wear one when you wash your hair?”

““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 told Fox News, adding that she “can’t believe” the speaker didn’t have a mask on. (From the footage, it appears Pelosi had some kind of covering around her neck.)

“We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right?” Kious said. “It is just disturbing.”

Kious said Pelosi received a wash and a blow-dry, but told Fox News that “you’re not supposed to blow dry hair,” according to coronavirus safety precautions for hair salons.

“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,” Kious said.

“I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen,” she explained. “I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income.”

Meanwhile, President Trump weighed in, blasting the speaker for “constantly lecturing everyone else” on COVID-19 guidelines.

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“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,” the president tweeted Wednesday. “We will almost certainly take back the House, and send Nancy packing!”

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

President Trump encouraged voters to make sure “your precious vote has been counted,” a day after he was accused of urging his supporters in North Carolina to commit election fraud by trying to vote twice — once by mail and then again in-person at the polls on Election Day just in case.

He clarified on Twitter that he wanted voters to double-check that their mail-in votes were counted.

“Based on the massive number of Unsolicited & Solicited Ballots that will be sent to potential Voters for the upcoming 2020 Election, & in order for you to MAKE SURE YOUR VOTE COUNTS & IS COUNTED, SIGN & MAIL IN your Ballot as EARLY as possible,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning.

“On Election Day, or Early Voting, go to your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been Tabulated (Counted),” the president continued. “If it has you will not be able to Vote & the Mail In System worked properly. If it has not been Counted, VOTE (which is a citizen’s right to do).”

TRUMP DESIGNATES WILMINGTON A ‘WORLD WAR II HERITAGE CITY,’ DECLARES ‘WE WON’T TEAR DOWN THE PAST

Trump concluded: “If your Mail In Ballot arrives after you Vote, which it should not, that Ballot will not be used or counted in that your vote has already been cast & tabulated. YOU ARE NOW ASSURED THAT YOUR PRECIOUS VOTE HAS BEEN COUNTED, it hasn’t been “lost, thrown out, or in any way destroyed”. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!”

The tweets came after Trump on Wednesday spoked in an on-camera interview about his concerns over potential election fraud amid an increase in mail-in voting sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Critics accused the president of telling Americans to vote twice ‒ once by mail, and a second time by casting their votes at the polls ‒ in order to test the veracity of the system.

“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, N.C., when asked about the security of mail-in votes. “And if their system is 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. So that’s the way it is, and that’s what they should do.”

“I don’t like the idea of these unsolicited votes. I never did. It leads to a lot of problems. They’ve got 11 problems already on very small contests. I’m not happy about it. At the same time, we’re in court with a lot of it. We’re going to see if it can be stopped,” the president told WECT’s Jon Evans standing in front of Air Force One shortly after arriving at Wilmington International Airport.

“But send your ballots, send them in strong, whether it’s solicited or unsolicited. The absentees are fine. But go to vote and if they haven’t counted it, you can vote. That’s the way I view it.”

TRUMP CAMPAIGN SUES MONTANA DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR TO HALT MAIL-IN VOTING 

Voting twice in the same election is against the law.

“You can’t let them take your vote away. These people are playing dirty politics. So if you have an absentee ballot, or as I call it, a solicited ballot, you send it in. But I would check it in any event. Go and follow it and go vote,” Trump later told a crowd of reporters.

Trump visited Wilmington on Wednesday to officially designate the nation’s first World War II Heritage City.

“Today, President Trump outrageously encouraged NCians to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein tweeted Wednesday. “Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.”

“Casting two ballots is illegal,” the ACLU tweeted. “Don’t listen to the President.”

U.S. Attorney General William Barr was asked about Trump’s remarks during his appearance on CNN Wednesday night.

“He’s trying to make the point that the ability to monitor the system is not good. And, if it was so good, if you tried to vote a second time, you would be caught,” Barr said, referencing the president. When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked whether it was illegal to vote twice in an election, Barr responded: “I don’t know what the law in that particular state says.”

Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director, said the president was drawing attention to “the reckless election law tampering Democrats are doing in states across the country, creating the very real opportunity for people to vote twice.”

“President Trump encourages supporters to vote absentee-by-mail early, and then show up in person at the polls or the local registrar to verify that their vote has already been counted. It’s amazing that the media can go from insisting that voter fraud doesn’t exist to screaming about it when President Trump points out the giant holes in the Democrats’ voting schemes,” Murtaugh added.

Reyna Walters-Morgan, Democratic National Committee director of voter protection and civic engagement, maintained that Trump “encouraged his supporters to commit voter fraud, which in North Carolina is also a Class I felony. It’s that simple.”

DEMS ‘IGNORING’ MAIL-IN VOTER FRAUD, ‘BURYING THEIR HEAD IN THE SAND’: KATIE PAVLICH 

“Let’s be clear: Voting by mail is a safe and secure way for Americans to participate in our democracy—and Trump should be working to make it easier to vote, not harder,” she said. “We know Trump will attempt to spread misinformation with the goal of weakening trust in our democracy because what he fears most in November are millions of Americans at the ballot box holding him accountable.”

Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a statement Thursday that “It is illegal to vote twice in an election. N.C.G.S. § 163-275(7) makes it a Class I felony for a voter, ‘with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time…in the same primary or election.’ Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law.”

“The State Board office strongly discourages people from showing up at the polls on Election Day to check whether their absentee ballot was counted. That is not necessary, and it would lead to longer lines and the possibility of spreading COVID-19,” Bell added.

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Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign is spotlighting sound from an interview Trump held with Fox Business in May. In part, the president said, “The level of dishonesty with Democrat voting is unbelievable. If you told a Republican to vote twice, you’d get sick at even the thought of it. And you have people who vote numerous times. What’s happening is crazy. So now they want to send out vote by mail. Who’s knows who’s signing this stuff.”

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien cast Joe Biden’s planned visit to Kenosha Thursday as political while warning that “this is not the time to be injecting politics” into what he called “a really serious situation” amid weeks of unrest in the city.

During an interview on “Fox & Friends” Thursday, Stepien said it is “scary times in Democrat-controlled states and cities.”

TRUMP SLAMS BIDEN OVER ‘RADICAL LEFT’ RIOTS IN NEW WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA ADS

“The president was there earlier in the week as president of the United States,” Stepien said. “Vice President Biden is there today as a candidate — as a political candidate.”

He added: “This is not the time to be injecting politics into a really serious situation that the president helped solve.”

Stepien went on to criticize Democrats for “encouraging violence in the streets.”

“You don’t see many supporters of the president throwing bricks through windows, or setting buildings on fire,” Stepien said, while adding that “most Americans,” when looking at violence in cities like Portland and Chicago over the summer, felt that the unrest “seemed quite far removed from their backyards.”

Stepien noted, though, that Kenosha “showed violence can happen anywhere if Democrat leadership is left untethered.”

“Democrats may want to talk about coronavirus, but the violence is out of hand in these Democrat states,” Stepien said.

Stepien’s comments come ahead of the Democratic presidential nominee’s planned visit to Kenosha later Thursday.

TRUMP VISITS SITES OF RIOTS IN KENOSHA, PROMISES TO HELP BUSINESSES REBUILD

Unrest in the city began last month, after 29-year-old Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot at close range in the back by a city police officer, leaving him partially paralyzed.

Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he would try to “heal” and “put things together and bring people together.”

“So my purpose in going will be to do just that — be a positive influence on what’s going on, talk about what needs to be done and try to see if there’s a beginning of a mechanism to bring the folks together,” Biden said Wednesday.

The president visited Kenosha on Tuesday, getting an up-close look at the damage caused by recent riots and looting in the city.

The president announced $1 million to Kenosha law enforcement “so you have extra money to go out and do what you have to do.” He also announced $4 million to support local businesses affected by the violence and $42 million to support public safety statewide — including support for law enforcement and prosecutors.

“We’re going to get it fixed up, we’re going to help people rebuild their businesses in Kenosha…we’re getting it straightened out,” Trump told reporters as he began his trip.

“Kenosha been ravaged by anti-police and anti-American riots,” he said at a roundtable with law enforcement and business owners after also visiting an emergency operations center.

“These are not acts of peaceful protests, but domestic terror,” he said.

BIDEN CLARIFIES POSITION ON DEFUNDING POLICE AS REPUBLICANS CONTINUE ATTACKS

During his visit, the president went on to compare his law and order message to Biden’s, who he has repeatedly said is weak on crime.

”To stop the political violence we must also confront the radical ideology that includes this violence. Reckless far-left politicians continue to push the destructive message that our nation and our law enforcement are oppressive or racist — they’ll throw out any word that comes to them,” he said at the roundtable.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign this week launched new ads in key states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, which were meant to speak directly to those “who have felt the impact of the violent mobs” amid unrest in their cities.

BIDEN SAYS ‘NEEDLESS VIOLENCE WON’T HEAL US’ AFTER BLAKE SHOOTING

“Joe Biden is too weak and can’t call out the radical leftist rioters for what they are because he is under the control of the anti-police extremists in the Democrat Party,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. “The rioters are running amok in Democrat-controlled cities and only President Trump is standing for law and order.”

Biden, though, has repeatedly condemned violence in cities on the campaign trail. Last week, Biden condemned violence in Kenosha, and in July, condemned violence in Portland, Ore., while calling for the prosecution of “arsonists and anarchists.”

Before that Biden also condemned similar violence in Minneapolis after George Floyd, a Black man, died in police custody in May.