Democratic strategist Kelly Dietrich on Wednesday said that Congress “missed a beautiful chance” to discuss privacy and data when Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee, saying the committee seemed “out of touch.”
“Congress missed a beautiful chance yesterday to do something for the American people, and talk about privacy and data,” Dietrich, the founder and CEO of the Democratic Training Committee, told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
“Instead we wound up talking to [Rep.] Steve King [R-Iowa] about how to reprogram his VCR. It was out of touch,” he continued.
Pichai’s hearing before the House committee was the first time the Google CEO delivered testimony before a congressional panel amid controversy over data security at big tech firms and allegations of bias against conservatives on a number of platforms.
However, King asked Pichai why his granddaughter sees news about King when she is playing a game on the iPhone.
Pichai responded to the question by clarifying that Google does not make the iPhone, to which King then said the phone might have been an Android instead. Pichai then told the congressman he could follow up with him once he better understood the specifics.
“There may be an application which was being used which had a notification. But I’m happy to understand it better and clarify it for you,” Pichai said.
The Iowa congressman was recently in the news after a series of racially charged comments made by King resurfaced and for his backing of a white nationalist mayoral candidate in Canada.
— Julia Manchester
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