A shouting match broke out Wednesday during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing with America’s top technology executives after Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon dismissed Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan’s question to Google’s CEO as “fringe conspiracy theories.”
“Can you assure us today you’re not going try to silence conservatives.” Jordan asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The Ohio Congressman continued to grill Pichai on whether the search engine would configure their features to help former vice president Joe Biden defeat President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. (RELATED: Documents Detailing Google’s ‘News Blacklist’ Show Manual Manipulation Of Special Search Results)
After Jordan’s time had expired, the committee moved on to Scanlon who told the executives, “I would like to redirect your attention to antitrust law rather than fringe conspiracy theories.” Jordan responded by repeatedly interrupting the congresswoman shouting, “Mr. chairman, we have the emails this is not a fringe conspiracy theory!”
WATCH:
Jordan to Raskin:
“Mr. Raskin, you want to talk about masks? Why would the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury unmask Michael Flynn’s name?”
The Deputy Secretary of the Treasury who unmasked Flynn was Raskin’s wife, Sarah Raskin…pic.twitter.com/ncvjGHU4Ha
— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) July 29, 2020
Fellow Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin came to Scanlon’s defense by shouting down Jordan for not wearing a mask. Jordan snapped back, “Mr. Raskin, you want to talk about masks? Why would the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury unmask Michael Flynn’s name?”
Throughout the hearing, other Republican Reps. including Matt Gaetz and Ken Buck also went after Pichai questioning him on why Google has collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party amid the country’s rampant censorship efforts. (RELATED Republican Reps Grill Google CEO Over ‘Collaboration’ With China)
Pichai along with Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook were all questioned by lawmakers on Wednesday over whether their companies have violated antitrust rules. Lawmakers in the House on both sides have obtained 1.3 million documents in addition interviewing other tech executives surrounding the companies practices, according to The Washington Post.