Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is urging the Senate Homeland Security Committee to issue subpoenas for Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and key software engineers to explain the company’s handling of search results following the assassination attempt on former President Trump in July. Marshall claims Google’s autocomplete feature failed to suggest relevant search results about the incident, instead displaying unrelated topics like the assassination attempts on Ronald Reagan and Archduke Ferdinand. He alleges that Google’s omission is a result of political bias, accusing the tech giant of deliberately suppressing information that could be damaging to certain political figures.

Marshall, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on investigations, believes Google must answer questions regarding its search algorithms and how they shape access to information. He argues that the company’s influence as the dominant search engine gives it significant power to control public knowledge, particularly in politically sensitive matters. Despite Google’s claims that its search results were impacted by outdated systems, Marshall insists that the issue needs further investigation as the 2024 presidential election approaches, warning of the risks of unchecked tech bias in shaping public opinion.

In response, Google stated that the initial lack of search results related to the Trump assassination attempt was due to a company policy against promoting results for hypothetical political violence. However, Marshall is skeptical of this explanation, arguing that the attack on Trump was a real event and should not have been treated as hypothetical. He remains committed to pressing for answers and holding the company accountable.