Google says it took ‘no manual action’ to hide Trump assassination attempt from search suggestions
July 29, 2024
Google’s search engine conspicuously left out Donald Trump in autocomplete suggestions for “assassination,” “assassination attempt” and even “president donald” Sunday, drawing criticism from social media users including X owner Elon Musk that it was censoring recent history.
The curious suggestions recalled FBI Director Chris Wray questioning whether a bullet even hit the blood-streaked Republican presidential nominee in the attempted assassination, which the bureau walked back after backlash from conservative lawmakers.
Google quickly responded to a Just the News query on the assassination-specific search suggestions, which were highlighted in multiple posts by Libs of TikTok Sunday and verified by House and Senate lawmakers, at least one state attorney general and Just the News.
Musk noted that the suggested finish for “President Donald” was “Duck,” the Disney character, and “Regan,” President Reagan’s chief of staff Donald Reagan, as of late Sunday. (“Trump” had replaced “Duck” in Google suggestions Monday morning when Just the News checked.)
Even an explicit search for “assassination attempt trump” and “president donald trump” returned no suggestions over a 13-hour period from Sunday to Monday morning.
“These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Miss., posted on X, referring to Google’s suggestion to search for the assassination attempt on former President Harry Truman but not former President Trump. “I’ll be making an official inquiry” to Google this week.