RNC

Election Interference: Google Search Buried Links to Rumble’s Exclusive Republican Presidential Debate Stream

September 21, 2023 by Allum Bokhari Leave a Comment

Google, in the midst of a historic antitrust trial in DC, buried direct links to Rumble, the exclusive distributor of the first RNC debate, in its search engine. In an even bigger antitrust fumble, it placed links to its own video platform, YouTube, ahead of Rumble’s.

Google was well aware that Rumble had exclusive rights to broadcast the Republican presidential debate last month. In internal emails obtained by the Intercept, Google even reached out to the RNC ahead of time, asking about their online live stream plans to “share with the product team.”

Sabo mocks Google CEO Sundar Pichai (unsavoryagents.com)

Google did ask the RNC to provide a link to Rumble’s debate stream, and on August 14 informed the RNC and Rumble that it needed a link that very day in order to feature the stream at the top of its results.

Generating a link to a livestream nine days in advance is a complicated process, and a Rumble employee requested a call with Google’s representative to clarify what the tech giant needed. Google’s representative did not respond, despite Rumble bumping the email.

The RNC promptly responded, telling Google that the debate would be streamed on Fox News for cable watchers, on Fox Nation for paying subscribers, and on Rumble for the general public, for free.

On the day of the debate, Rumble was nowhere to be found on the first page of Google search results for “GOP debate stream.”

Google owns YouTube, by far and away the dominant platform in online video hosting, and therefore Rumble’s top competitor. Rumble is currently suing Google in California over alleged antitrust violations, arguing that the tech giant is suppressing results for Rumble and other competitors in its search results. The fact that Google failed to display a link to a Rumble-exclusive presidential livestream is unlikely to help the tech giant’s case.

Google, however, insists it was all just a misunderstanding.

“The facts here are very mundane,” a Google representative told the Intercept. “People could easily find information about where to watch the debate in Google Search results. And as part of our ongoing effort to build dedicated features in Search to more prominently showcase events like debates, we reached out to the RNC and Rumble, but unfortunately it didn’t come together in time to test and create the livestream feature. We’ve already worked with the RNC and Rumble to get this feature set up for the next debate, as we would do with any livestream provider.”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.

Report: 7 GOP Candidates Likely Qualify for 2nd Presidential Debate Thus Far

September 19, 2023 by Nick Gilbertson Leave a Comment

Seven Republican candidates have likely qualified for the second GOP presidential debate on September 27, thus far, according to reports, although the frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, will skip the event and deliver a prime-time address while visiting with striking autoworkers in Michigan.

The debate stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next Thursday will likely feature Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and former Gov. Chris Christe (R-NJ), CBS News politics reporter Aaron Navarro reports.

These candidates, who all participated in the first debate, “are likely to have” met the Republican National Committee’s more stringent polling and donor requirements, according to Navarro. Their fellow participants in Milwaukee in August – Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) – have not yet hit the benchmark, per CBS News, and are on track to fall short, according to an earlier report from Tim Reid of Reuters.

To qualify, a candidate must either garner three percent or more in two national polls or at least three percent in one national in addition to three percent in two of the first four early voting states. The poll must also be taken on August 1 or later, and candidates have until 48 before the debate to prove to the RNC they met the threshold.

Real Clear Politics (RCP) reports Burgum and Hutchinson each averaged .2 percent nationally from August 1-September 15. Notably, the RCP average includes polls that do not meet the RNC’s respondent requirements, but the figure offers a general reference point for their performance in the relevant time frame.

Candidates must also satisfy the 50,000 unique donor threshold to participate, which is an increase of 10,000 from the first debate. Reid noted that Burgum and Hutchinson are unlikely to satisfy this threshold.

Multiple sources on Monday confirmed to Breitbart News that Trump will meet with members of the United Auto Workers in Detroit, Michigan, who are striking against the Big Three automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, during the debate. The New York Times reports he will deliver a “prime-time speech before current and former union members.”

The strategy mirrors his counter programming from the first debate, which dueled with a 45-minute interview between Trump and Tucker Carlson on the host’s eponymously-named show, Tucker on Twitter, which was released moments before the debate and went viral.

The third debate is reportedly going to take place in Miami, Florida, in November, as Breitbart News noted.