The Dictatorship
People are dying in wildfires. And this conservative attacks sign language interpreters.
On Friday, Christopher Rufo, the Manhattan Institute senior fellow who played a major role in whipping up people against critical race theoryquote-tweeted a video of a press conference by the Los Angeles County Emergency Management about the area wildfires that included a man using American Sign Language.
“I’m sorry, but we have to stop with the ridiculous sign language interpreters, who turn serious press conferences into a farce,” Rufo wrote. “There are closed captions on all broadcast channels and streaming services. No wild human gesticulators necessary.”
Hanania argued that captioning “works fine” and that the so-called disability lobby has “to pretend like it doesn’t to force this absurdity onto us.”
Users added community notes to refute Rufo’s claims, saying accurately that closed captioning is not universal nor universally effective and that ASL captures nuance that captioning misses. Richard Hanania, the right-wing commentator who previously wrote for white supremacist websites under a pseudonym, jumped on this, saying “that the process has been captured by the disability lobby,” a phrase that is laughable in that disabled people don’t have a lobby. Disabled people have some advocates, of course, but none with the power of Washington’s real power brokers.
Hanania argued that captioning “works fine” and that the so-called disability lobby has “to pretend like it doesn’t to force this absurdity onto us.”
The pair’s words reveal a lack of understanding about deaf people. ASL is the first language for many people who are born deaf or become deaf early in life; many people who become deaf or hard of hearing later in life tend to prefer captioning. In addition, while closed captioning works better for scripted television, delays for live television are inevitable or they can be garbled or displayed too quickly.
The expressiveness that Rufo dismissed as wild gesticulating has a utility, in the same way accenting certain words can in spoken language.
Though it was clearly not his intent, Rufo expressing irritation at the county emergency management agency including an ASL interpreter brings attention to an aspect of natural disasters and emergencies that isn’t discussed enough: People with disabilities are especially vulnerable during such disasters and emergencies.
The fires in Southern California have offered horrible examples already. Anthony Mitchell, 67, died in Altadena along with his son Justin Mitchell, who was in his early 20s. The father, who’d had a leg amputated, used a wheelchair to get around. His son had cerebral palsy and couldn’t walk. The ambulance he was waiting for to get him and his son out didn’t arrive in time, and they both died. “He probably could have gotten himself out, but he wasn’t going to leave my brother,” a surviving son told NBC News on Friday. “He really loved his kids.”
The father, who’d had a leg amputated, used a wheelchair to get around. His son had cerebral palsy and couldn’t walk.
Former Australian child actor Rory Sykes, who was born blind and with cerebral palsy, also died after his mother failed to save him as the wildfires in Malibu raged. Sykes lived in a cottage on his family’s 17-acre estate and his mother reportedly “couldn’t put out the cinders on his roof with a hose.” She says the “water was switched off” by Las Virgenes Municipal Water. A spokesperson for Las Virgenes Municipal Water disputed that claim, saying “water service did remain available and uninterrupted to her property and the entire surrounding community.”
His mother told Australian outlet 10 News Firstthat she has a broken arm and could not lift or move her son. “He said, ‘Mom, leave me.’ And no mom could leave their kid,” she said, crying. But when she returned from trying to enlist the aid of the fire department, she said, her son’s cottage had burned down.
Data shows that natural disasters create dire circumstances for people with disabilities. According to the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs, they are two to four times more likely to die in conflict zones and natural disasters.
In addition, a 2024 study in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction found that deaf people and people with hearing loss are uniquely vulnerable during emergencies because of the lack of “access to critical information at the right time and in an adequate format.” While many of the people interviewed did not suffer injury, most of them suffered property damage.
But if people with disabilities struggle to escape during natural disasters, they face just as terrible prospects when they do escape.
The U.S. Census Bureau found that 70 percent of adults who are deaf reported living in unsanitary conditions a month after a disaster compared to 7 percent of people who can hear. E&E News reported last year that the Census Bureau recorded data over 10 days in December 2022, and found that, a month after a natural disaster, more than 74 percent of people who are unable to walk faced food shortages compared to 9 percent of people who can walk.
The International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction found that deaf people and people with hearing loss are uniquely vulnerable during emergencies.
Furthermore, while only 1 percent of adults in 2022 had to leave their homes due to natural disaster, 31 percent of adults who cannot care for themselves had to leave their homes; 21 percent of blind adults had to leave their homes; and 59 percent of adults who left their homes never returned.
Natural disasters can also end up costing people with disabilities not only their homes, but their fundamental freedoms. A 2019 report by the National Council on Disability described the distressing frequency with which people with disabilities wind up institutionalized after natural disasters, which leads to families being separated, people with disabilities losing their jobs and students missing out on education.
Rufo’s words have special resonance on the right. So it’s important that we not dismiss his attack on ASL interpreters as silly jabbering but take it with the utmost seriousness. It’s unfortunate that instead of acknowledging that people with disabilities — in whatever form — are in greater danger during disasters, Rufo would choose to attack one of the ways to keep them informed.
Eric Garcia is the senior Washington correspondent and bureau chief for The Independent. He is the author of “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.”
In an explosive interview with NBC aired Sunday, President Donald Trump cut the grilling short and left the set after peppering “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker with insults.
“You’re either crooked or you’re stupid,” Trump told Welker, who kept a cool demeanor despite the president’s barrage of disparaging slurs.
Moments before he attacked her, Trump — without providing any evidence — said he believes elections in the U.S. are rigged. Then he lambasted television news networks, singling out NBC, CBS and ABC.
“They’re crooked just like you’re crooked, your press is crooked. And ‘Meet the Press’ is crooked,” Trump said.
“To be fair, I’m not crooked,” Welker shot back. “But let’s continue.”
“Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough,” the president told Welker, who is the second woman and first Black journalist to helm the network’s flagship program.
Trump added, “Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
It was not the first time Trump has berated a female journalist on the job covering his presidency.
In November 2025, he told Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey to stop talking, saying, “Quiet. Quiet, piggy.” One month later, he told ABC’s Rachel Scott she was “the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place.” Last month, he called MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner “a dumb person” for pointing out that the cost of his White House ballroom project had doubled since it was first announced.
He has also repeatedly lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collinscriticizing her for not smiling enough.
The wide-ranging interview, which was taped last week on a farm in Wisconsin, was interrupted by the loud sound of heavy rain on the metal roof of the barn where they met. Welker questioned Trump on his war with Iran, his “anti-weaponization” fund and the upcoming midterm elections.
On his nearly $1.8 billion fund aimed at compensating people who say they were wrongly prosecuted, including Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, Trump said “people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization. Many of those people should be compensated.”
He described the people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as people who were “being ushered into the building” by law enforcement.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the fund last month and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week the administration would not be moving forward with the fundwhich faced bipartisan backlash.
When asked if the administration would pursue other avenues to revive it, Trump said he does not know what will ultimately happen and called Welker and her network “the fake dirty press.”
Despite campaigning on a promise to end foreign wars, Trump denied that he made such statements. He characterized the Iran war, launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28, as necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
When asked about the rising cost of living as a result of the war, specifically gas and fertilizer, Trump chastised Welker.
“Are you ready? Am I allowed to talk? You keep asking questions and you don’t listen to the answers,” he said.
“I love the farmers and the farmers love me,” Trump said, adding that prices will come down after the war.
Welker suggested to her viewers Sunday that she and the president had a cordial conversation Saturday, saying they both “acknowledged the complications” posed by the rain. “He agreed to sit down with me for another ‘Meet the Press’ interview,” she said.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Iran said visas were denied to key members of its national soccer team ahead of the World Cupwhich a U.S. official insisted was necessary so that Iran does not try to “sneak terrorists into the United States.”
In a post on Xthe Iranian embassy in Turkey said “visas were denied to a large portion of the managerial and executive staff, technical advisers, and others” on its team.
“You have now escalated the deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team to its highest level,” the embassy said, accusing the U.S. of the “worst possible form of politically biased interference in sport” and “depriving Iran’s national team of its right to play in the World Cup under normal conditions.”
Iranian officials are accusing the U.S. government of violating FIFA regulations and breaching its obligations as one of the host countries of what is widely regarded to be the biggest sporting event in the world. The diplomatic standoff between the two countries comes just days before the World Cup is set to kick off and more than three months after the U.S. and Israel waged war against Iran.
A Trump administration official who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the subject told MS NOW in a statement that the visas “necessary for Iran to compete in the World Cup, including for athletes and necessary support staff, have been issued.”
The official added, however, “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses.”
The statement from the Iranian Embassy in Turkey came in response to a post on X by U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack praising embassy staff for processing visas for the Iranian national team.
According to The Associated Presssome of the team’s officials have not received visas to enter the U.S., which is co-hosting the World Cup with Mexico and Canada. Games are set to begin Thursday.
Problems with getting U.S. visas had already led Iran to move its World Cup training base from the U.S. to Mexico. But Iran is still listed on the official World Cup schedule to play its first two games in Los Angeles on June 15 against New Zealand, and against Belgium six days later before heading to Seattle to face Egypt.
The Iran Football Federation’s secretary-general and its vice president were among 14 staff and officials without U.S. visas, AP said, citing Iranian state television. The federation reportedly accused the U.S. of “vindictive behavior.”
Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
A shooting near a community festival in Toledo, Ohio, wounded at least 12 people, and police said a search for the suspects was ongoing following an outbreak of gunfire that sent crowds scrambling for cover.
Two of the wounded were in critical condition, Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joe Heffernan said. He said it appeared there were at least two people firing weapons who were “probably shooting at each other.”
The Toledo Police Department said the shooting happened near the Old West End Festival, an annual gathering of live music and home tours in a historic district of the city.
The department said an active search was underway for those responsible.
“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Toledo tonight. Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Multiple videos posted to social media showed people running over the sound of gunshots and emergency officials tending to others who appeared wounded.
Kevin Berry said he was sitting in the neighborhood arboretum listening to live music with his friends when he heard a handful of gunshots ring out.
“Everybody hit the deck,” he said.
When he looked back up, he saw a gun being tossed to the ground less than 50 feet (15 meters) away from him. Police officers who were already on-site for the festival immediately responded to the scene.
Berry, who has medical training and served in the U.S. Navy, said he walked around the area looking for potential victims who might need help.
He said he saw at least five people with gunshot wounds.
“The folks who were hit were spread out around the arboretum area,” he said.
The Old West End Festival is a two-day celebration in Toledo’s historic district that includes live music, food vendors, home tours and shopping.
Berry described it as the “kick-off to Toledo’s summer festival season.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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