GOP senator calls for Google execs to be subpoenaed over censorship of Trump assassination attempt

On Wednesday, Senator Roger Marshall called for executives at Google to be subpoenaed and appear before the Senate Homeland Committee over the tech giant’s search autocomplete feature omitting the inclusion of the Trump assassination, despite showing search suggestions for other famous assassination attempts throughout history.

Marshall wrote on X, "Weeks after the assassination attempt that left President Donald Trump within centimeters of his life, Google is still defending its misinformation, declaring the assassination attempt a ‘hypothetical act of political violence.' Google's top executives must come before the Senate Homeland Committee IMMEDIATELY. We are launching a full investigation into Google's litany of failures & history of suppressing conservative viewpoints. Time for accountability- time for top-down subpoenas."

"As you note in your letter, Autocomplete was not initially providing predictions for queries about the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump," the letter from Google stated. "This is because, as noted above and shared publicly, our systems are designed to prohibit Autocomplete predictions for hypothetical political violence against current figures (as opposed to against historical figures such as President Truman, whom you asked about."

"As discussed, these protections are not event-specific but rather applied to categories of possible searches. As a result, prior to July 13, 2024, it would have been inappropriate for our systems to offer any predictions involving possible assassination attempts on President Trump. In the immediate aftermath of the horrific events in Butler, PA, these systems were still in place and predictions related to the assassination attempt failed to appear."

The letter added that "we recognize that these out-of-date systems led to an inadequate user experience." They said that once the issue was brought to the company’s attention they "began working on improvements that have already started rolling out."

Following the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, Google came under fire for its search suggestion feature suggesting results for assassination attempts on Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Teddy Roosevelt, and others, but not Trump. 

Marshall announced in early July that he was launching a "full investigation" of Google for the omission. "Google’s failure to provide suggestions related to the assassination attempt against President Trump on July 13, 2024 as part of its search function is yet another example of censorship against conservative voices and violates the intent of Section 230," he wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Marshall stated that Google’s omission of "suggestions to the most obvious and recent victim of an assassination attempt shows a willful discrimination against President Trump and user of your search engine. Furthermore, Google’s decision to selectively erect hurdles to those seeking to obtain more information regarding one of the most important events in recent American history places you in the role of information arbiter, well beyond the scope of your firm’s purported purpose."