Biden's Sign Language Interpreter In Hot Water For Pushing Far-Right Misinformation

With just a single White House press conference under her belt, a sign language interpreter for President Joe Biden is already under fire. Prior to Heather Mewshaw's work for the Biden administration on Monday, unearthed videos show her helping to distribute far-right misinformation.

Mewshaw has worked for Hands of Liberty, a right-wing sign language group that has, with her assistance, pushed conspiracy theories and false narratives, reports The Washington Post.

Mewshaw joined with Hands of Liberty, once known as Right Side ASL, after leaving the group Live Access ASL due to her choice to interpret political videos containing misinformation, according to deaf community news site The Daily Moth.

She was originally brought into the White House by former President Donald Trump administration after it lost a legal suit and was forced to provide sign language interpreters during briefings.

“Joe Biden, you will never be my president,” Mewshaw signed during a video interpreting Black pro-Trump comedian Terrence Williams three days before working for Biden's administration.

Other videos Mewshaw interpreted contained titles like “What Really Happened On January 6th?” and “Joe Biden Is Literally And Legally Not The President-Elect,” reports The Independent. In a video posted five days before she was introduced, entitled “Thank You President Trump From the Right Side ASL Team,” she wears a red MAGA hat and interprets Trump dancing to the "YMCA" theme.

Mewshaw was originally reported by various outlets to appear to run Hands of Liberty, but group founder Michael Thompson clarified that she was not in a management position. Speaking to The Washington Post, he lamented how partisanship had bled into previously unaffiliated fields like interpretation.

“Now Democrats and Republicans will think they have a right to get rid of interpreters from the other side just because they are from an opposing party,” Thompson said.

Nobody has publicly contested Mewshaw’s interpretation of her first briefing, and the nonpartisan body The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf confirmed that Mewshaw was certified.

For some, however, that’s not enough to forgive her decision to aid right-wing misinformation efforts. English doesn’t translate directly into sign language, meaning interpreters must create analogous signs to the best of their ability, opening the process to bias. A petition to remove her from her White House post has accrued over four thousand signatures to date.

“...Heather has done harm to many members of the deaf communities via her work in Right Side ASL,” Jon Henner, a sign language and education professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, told The Washington Post. “Being rewarded with national visibility as an interpreter for the White House is not building bridges nor supporting unity.”