Election Interference? Google Scrubs Trump Assassination Attempt from Autocomplete Results

Just two weeks after former President Donald Trump was shot in the head at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, tech giant Google appears to be hampering searches for the event on its search engine.

In response to reports that Google blocked the Trump assassination attempt from appearing in autocomplete search results, The Washington Stand found that a Google search for “assassination attempt” yields autocomplete results such as “on hitler” and “on ronald reagan,” but no mention is made of Trump. Likewise, a search for “assassination attempt on” returns autocomplete results for such figures as Adolf Hitler, Ronald Reagan, Vladimir Lenin, Bob Marley, Harry Truman, Prince Charles, Gerald Ford, and Pope John Paul II. Again, no mention is made of Trump. A search for “assassination attempt on tru” yields autocomplete results such as “assassination attempt on truman,” “how many presidents had an assassination attempt,” and “assassination attempt meaning.” A search for “assassination attempt on Trump” is met with no autocomplete results or suggestions.

Furthermore, searches that do not include the word “assassination” are also censored. A search for “Trump butler,” referring to the site of the attempted assassination returns no autocomplete results. A search for “Trump shot” is corrected to “Trump Soho,” “Trump shoe,” “Trump shuttle,” or “Trump show.” Among the top results if a Google search for “assassination attempt on Trump” is run are reports that Google has blocked autocomplete results for the event.

On July 13, Trump was shot in the head by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks during a campaign rally in Butler. Moments after being shot, Trump pushed aside his Secret Service detail to face the crowd, raise his fight, and shout, “Fight!” Because Trump turned his head at the last second, the bullet hit his ear instead of his skull. At the Republican National Convention the following week, Trump attributed his survival to “the grace of God Almighty.”

Since then, answers surrounding the assassination attempt and the related failures of the U.S. Secret Service have been difficult to come by. President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intervened to block Secret Service members from testifying to the House Oversight Committee, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle repeatedly refused to answer questions in a congressional hearing before abruptly resigning, and FBI Director Christopher Wray openly questioned whether Trump had even been shot, suggesting instead that he had been hit by “shrapnel.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), former physician to both Trump and former President Barack Obama, confirmed that Trump had been shot and rebuked Wray. “During the Congressional Hearing … FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested that it could be a bullet, shrapnel, or glass,” Jackson wrote. Citing his 20 years of experience in emergency medicine in the U.S. Navy, as well as his “battlefield experience,” Jackson continued, “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.” (The FBI has since confirmed that the sniper’s bullet caused Trump’s injury.)

In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter explained that the multitude of major news events following the assassination attempt have been effectively buried by Google. “Americans who use Google are denied all these developments as the trillion-dollar company is burying search results on the assassination attempt against Donald Trump,” he stated. “Thankfully, conservatives — and really anyone not on the woke Left — are aware of the inappropriate influence of Big Tech in boosting their preferred candidates and causes and burying their political adversaries and disfavored causes.”

“For months search engines like Google have buried the conservative candidates’ campaign sites in search results, and even displayed their woke opponents’ campaign sites atop search results,” Carpenter continued. “What’s clear to all is that this is unfair and an in-kind contribution to political candidates from Big Tech.”

Elected officials and others have already criticized Google’s autocomplete restrictions regarding the Trump assassination attempt. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) asked, “Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?” He pledged, “I’ll be making an official inquiry into [Google] this week — I look forward to their response.” Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) commented, “This is what happens when a monopolist dominates search and controls Americans’ access to information.” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the autocomplete restrictions “insane,” explaining, “They are gas-lighting the American people & trying to erase the attempted assassination of Trump.”

Scott McKay, author of “The Revivalist Manifesto” and senior editor at The American Spectator, told TWS, “It’s hardly surprising, because Google search results have become ever-more Orwellian.” He noted that his own conservative, Louisiana-based political news site The Hayride has repeatedly been censored by Google. “We already know that fascistic and censorious organizations like NewsGuard are being used to throttle search results from legitimate independent media sources, and that Google participates in that effort,” McKay commented. “That they’re attempting to skew the dissemination of information about what happened in Butler isn’t surprising but it’s a dead giveaway that Google is a malign influence on free speech and honest conversations on the internet.”

He added, “The question is what to do about it. Clearly Google’s monopoly on search engine traffic is going to need some serious scrutiny.”

Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief at The Federalist, commented, “The censorship industrial complex is evil.” The popular Libs of TikTok account insisted, “Google needs to be hauled in front of Congress to answer for this.” In response to the question, “Did Google censor autocomplete for the Trump assassination query?” social media analyst and commentator Kristen Ruby answered, “Yes.” She explained, “It is very odd to type in the exact language of the incident as reported in the knowledge panel and for it not to appear in autocorrect.” Donald Trump, Jr. declared, “Big Tech is trying to interfere in the election AGAIN to help Kamala Harris. We all know this is intentional election interference from Google. Truly despicable.”

In response to the backlash, Google claimed that its autocomplete algorithm had restricted results relating to the attempted assassination of Trump prior to the attempted assassination itself, because Google’s “systems have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, which were working as intended prior to this horrific event.” Exactly two weeks after the assassination attempt, Google insisted, “We’re working on improvements to ensure our systems are more up to date.”

Google, however, has a long history of political activism and election interference. According to a Special Report published by the Media Research Center (MRC) earlier this year, Google has “interfered in elections” over 40 times since 2008. Google developed an “incestuous” relationship with the Obama White House, targeting his political opponents online and sending its executives to work in the presidential administration. Ahead of the 2016 election, Google censored search results related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s indictments and alleged crimes. For example, autocomplete would correct searches for “Hillary Clinton indictment” to “Hillary Clinton Indiana,” and searches for “Hillary Clinton crime” to “Hillary Clinton crime reform.”

Google would also offer “Nazism” as a “related search” when users searched for Republicans and included Republican websites and campaign pages when users ran Nazi-related searches. Google also ensured that past news search results for “Donald Trump” returned results from media outlets with a left-wing bias, such as CNN, The New York Times, Politico, or The Guardian.