Ted Cruz Puts Google Executive On Blast To His Face For Censoring Conservatives

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz hammered Google’s top Washington policy executive during a Senate Commerce hearing Wednesday, accusing the company of suppressing conservative speech and demanding accountability for its 2020 election policies.

The clash unfolded at Cruz’s “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans, Part II” hearing, where Google Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy Markham Erickson testified alongside Meta’s Neil Potts. Cruz framed the session as a probe into how federal officials leaned on tech firms to police lawful speech. (RELATED: ‘Greatest Threat To Free Speech’: Ted Cruz Aims To Take Legal Action Against Big Tech For Censoring Conservative Media)

“The First Amendment is a powerful weapon that protects against government’s efforts to silence its own citizens,” Cruz said in announcing the hearing. “However, we have seen the government trample on this right through third parties, joining with Big Tech to censor Americans, often under the guise of safety or national security.”

A video clip from the hearing shows Cruz pressing Erickson over Google’s handling of election-related posts and calling out the company for muzzling debate. The exchange, posted by conservative communicator Steve Guest, circulated widely on X.

WATCH: Sen. Ted Cruz BLASTS Google’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy for refusing to apologize for Google’s censorship of Americans after the 2020 election.

Cruz to Google: “Hold on a second. You’re taking the position that if anyone argues there’s fraud,… pic.twitter.com/28HSWD12gu

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 29, 2025

“So, this is a post, a video, showing election fraud claims by both Democrats and Republicans,” the senator said as aides placed a printout of the censored posts on an easel. “So, showing Hillary Clinton making claims of election fraud; showing Donald Trump making claims of election fraud. And YouTube deleted it, blocked it, gave the creator a strike — a step towards deleting his entire channel. Why would you remove a journalistic record of the claims of election fraud from both Democrats and Republicans?”

Erickson, representing Google’s policy shop, defended the company’s approach and emphasized disclosure around content moderation policies.

“We have election policies — and we’ve had election policies — for a long time to ensure that the most important thing that citizens can do, which is to vote, they can find relevant and useful information on our platforms,” Erickson said. “Where to vote, for example. What time to —”

“Yeah, but that was none of this,” Cruz interrupted. “They’re not saying, ‘Vote on Wednesday at the supermarket.’ This is videos of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump making claims of election fraud. Now, would you agree that it is friggin’ news when one of the two parties’ major presidential candidates makes a claim of election fraud? Would you agree that that’s news?”

“Excuse me,” the Google executive said. “Uh, yes, that is news.”

“OK. YouTube blocked it and said, ‘Nope! You, the citizens, we’re not going to allow you to see it.’ And, by the way, then YouTube reversed that decision and unblocked it, and you can see on the right,” Cruz pointed to the printout behind him. “Instead, you decided not to block it, but simply to demonetize it. It is Google’s testimony that you regret nothing, is that right?”

Erickson began to explain that after state certification of the 2020 election, YouTube had implemented a policy removing content that made claims of widespread fraud, errors or glitches. He noted that their Trust and Safety teams were responsible for this work when the senator interrupted him again.

“So — so hold on a second,” Cruz interjected. “You’re taking the position [that] if anyone argues there’s fraud, if anyone lays out claims, if anyone lays out evidence, the omnipotent Google in the sky will say, ‘No, you stupid citizens. You don’t get to hear this.’ Is that your position?”

“Respectfully, no, Mr. Chairman,” Erickson said.