Google CEO questioned by GOP Congressman: 'Sorry, iPhone is made by a different company.'
Google CEO Sundar Pichai had to tell a GOP Congressman today on Capitol Hill during a live Q & A session before Congress that the iPhone he was complaining about wasn't affiliated with his company.
This actually happened. And, it wasn't the only embarrassing moment. There were too many too count.
Fortunately, there's video of all of it.
Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who recently came under intense heat for endorsing a white supremacist for Toronto mayor, was captured on video telling Google's CEO about "language" his 7 year-old granddaughter had to witness on her iPhone while she was trying to play a game. He then demanded answers.
You really have to watch the video to fully capture the stupidity of the moment. Google's CEO took a deep breath, paused for a second to ponder the question, and then proceeded to explain in layman's terms: "Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company."
That's when Steve King changed his story completely to avoid embarrassment. "It might have been an android, a hand me down of some kind."
After @SteveKingIA raises inscrutable concerns about iPhones, Google CEO Sunday Pichai patiently informs him, "Congressman, iPhone is made by a different company." pic.twitter.com/TiNZ1t3VRo
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2018
Even if it was an android, the Congressman just made himself look like a total fool in front of everyone. He doesn't know plain and simple the facts surrounding his own question. How can he expect Google's CEO to answer a question like that then?

He wasn't the only one who had issues with the fact that Apple and Google aren't the same company.
Representative Ted Poe of Texas held up his iPhone when questioning Pichai.

And, so did Tom Marino, a Republican out of Pennsylvania's 10th district.
Do any of them have a Google phone in their line of questioning?

Apple devices aside - the main concern most of them had was not data security, or it's data collection practices, but if there's somehow a conspiracy at Google to elect more Democrats. Yes, that concern.
Rep. Steve Chabot just came right out with it: Every Google article I see is an attack on us.
.@RepSteveChabot suggests Google is biased against Republicans b/c when GOP was pushing Obamacare repeal, "I googled 'American Health Care Act' & virtually every article was an attack on our bill. Article after article alleging our bill would result in millions losing care." 🙃 pic.twitter.com/jBxA6kIfNL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2018
And, Rep. Lamar Smith out of Texas flat-out told him that he's more of an expert on Google than their own CEO.
.@LamarSmithTX21: You've never punished a Google employee for manipulating search results, is that right?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2018
GOOGLE CEO SUNDAR PICHAI: It's not even possible for an individual employee to do that.
SMITH: I disagree. I think humans can manipulate the process. pic.twitter.com/GjqNKd7FuE
All the questions asked by Republicans were an embarrassing spectacle.
Finally, Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu had to come to the rescue and tell Republicans:
"If you want positive search results, do positive things. If you don't want negative search results, don't do negative things. And to my colleagues, if you're getting bad results, don't blame Google or Twitter, consider blaming yourself."
.@tedlieu admonishes colleagues: "If you want positive search results, do positive things. If you don't want negative search results, don't do negative things. And to my colleagues, if you're getting bad results, don't blame Google or Twitter, consider blaming yourself." 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/Gby0jZbL8x
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2018
These weren't all the embarrassing moments but there's only so much one can handle in one day.
One question Pichai did have trouble answering was why a picture of Trump comes up when you Google the word "idiot" under Google images.
Here's Rep. Zoe Lofgren: How would something like this occur?
Pichai: "We have crawled billions of pages and we take a keyword and match it against pages using a lot of different signals."
Basically - that's what the web thinks of Trump.