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Dallas beauty salon owner Shelley Luther held her own in a confrontation on “The View” about her headline-making decision to reopen her business despite lockdown orders.

Luther squared off on ABC’s “The View” Monday with co-host Sunny Hostin who essentially accused her of being one of those responsible for a recent rise in coronavirus cases in Texas.

(Relevant portion of video begins at 5:02 mark)

(Source: YouTube)

The salon owner was thrust in the spotlight in recent days after she defied a Texas statewide coronavirus order to keep her business shuttered, landing in jail for contempt of court when she tore up a citation she was issued and refused a judge’s call to apologize.

Luther was serving the seven-day jail sentence when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott modified his own coronavirus executive orders and effectively freed her last week. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz paid the Salon a la Mode a visit after it reopened last week to get his first haircut in three months, further enraging liberals having a meltdown.

During Luther’s appearance on “The View,” Hostin did little to hide her obvious disapproval and, rather than champion a woman business owner who stood her ground against oppressive rules preventing her from taking care of her family, the liberal co-host cut right to the chase.

“Shelley, coronavirus cases are already rising in Texas and across the country where restrictions have been lifted, and you’re worried about your staff and your customers,” Hostin said. “I mean, I would assume you’re worried about your staff and your customers getting sick, since there’s now an uptick because of people not following the rules like yourself.”

Luther noted how more access to COVID-19 testing in Texas, as well as other states across the nation, has played a part in the rise in numbers.

“What we need to look at is the number of deaths, if that is plateauing at all, and to make sure that we have room in our hospital beds,” she said. “And Texas has plenty of room in their beds and are able to care for the people that need to come in at this time.”

“As a matter of fact, there’s doctors and nurses getting furloughed because there’s not enough work,” she added.

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg added her two cents, criticizing Luther for defying state regulations rather than calling out governments not doing enough to help people.

“I would like to hear you put some of that fury and that passion towards the governments that didn’t take care of the people because that’s what they’re supposed to do,” Goldberg said.

“So I want you to get out there and fight for all those folks who are not getting what they’re supposed to be getting, and not getting the information that they need, and then I think I’ll feel better about watching you tell people I’m feeding my people,” she added, apparently missing the point that Luther was, in fact, fighting for all of her stylists when she took her stand.

Earlier, Goldberg had smugly asked if Luther considered apologizing to those working on the front lines in the pandemic. The business owner politely shot down her obvious narrative, informing her that she is appreciative of the “real heroes” and she reopened her salon using all of the CDC safety guidelines.

Hostin confronted Luther earlier about government assistance she was given just before her court date, saying she was “troubled by that.”

“Shelley, we do know that so many Americans are facing financial hardship because of this pandemic, but you applied for small business loans and unemployment, and you did receive some aid from the government,” she said.

“You received $18,000 from the government. So I understand why people feel so strongly about going back to work, because they feel that the government isn’t doing its job and taking care of people, but in this instance, two days before you went to court, the money went into your account,” Hostin challenged. “So I’m troubled by that.”

Luther did not miss a beat, laying out the facts and quickly shooting down Hostin’s narrative.

“Yeah. I can see why you would be troubled,” she said.

“What happened was I had already had a court date and I had already been opened the entire time. There was $18,000 dropped in my bank account with no notice of what it was. So I get no instructions. I think it’s one of the loans, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to spend it, what I’m supposed to spend it on,” Luther explained.

“I know there’s guidelines and regulations to that, and I didn’t want to put myself in deeper debt by spending it the wrong way, you know, and also having to close the salon. So until I got further instruction on that, I didn’t want to spend it,” she said, adding that her stylists are not actually her employees but are sub-leasing their space from her.

“So I wasn’t sure if I was even able to give them any of that money as employees because I don’t pay them,” Luther said.

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Frieda Powers

Senior Staff Writer
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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