If you ever want to hear what a broken record sounds like, all you have to do is watch a congressional hearing featuring any executive from a social media or tech company.
Rep Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) tried to fix that record on Tuesday while questioning Google CEO Sundar Pichai during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
Jordan brought up an email that was sent out to Google executives the day after the 2016 election, written by Google’s head of multicultural marketing, Eliana Murillo. In the email, Murillo praised Pichai for giving her a “shout-out” for her work during the election, which Pichai didn’t recall.
Jordan noted how Murillo wrote that “we,” supposedly referencing Google in general, altered their features in order to get out the Latino vote “in key states.”
Pichai repeatedly told Jordan that his team uncovered no evidence to corroborate Murillo’s claims in the email. While Jordan said he had no problem with a company being a “good corporate citizen,” the congressman had a difficult time accepting the discrepancy over whether Google actually engaged in what Murillo said occurred during the 2016 election.
“So she’s [Murillo] not telling the truth?” Jordan asked Pichai.
Once again, Pichai brought out his broken record player and began playing his “we didn’t find any evidence” album.
“For sure we didn’t find any supporting evidence of any such activity,” Pichai responded.
That’s when Jordan really began hammering home that, while he doesn’t have any problem with a company encouraging people to vote, he does have a problem with the repeated three words used by Murillo in the email, “in key states.”
"But then there’s three words at the end of each sentence that do cause me real concern,” Jordan said. “And those three words are, ‘We push to get out the Latino vote with our features in key states.’ Now suddenly it gets political.”
Pichai, of course, kept saying how Google is a "non-partisan" company in response to Jordan's assertion.
Another tech executive facing tough questions from Congress, another session where the people just get more legal lip service.