Google employees and top executives are speaking out in protest of actions taken by President Donald Trump, but behind the scenes the company is working to ensure that it has a good relationship with Republican leadership.
On Monday, thousands of Google employees staged a public walkout in offices across the globe, which followed "stirring" speeches on Trump's immigration order by executives Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin. Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Google's parent company, told employees that Trump was going to continue to do "evil things."
Employees are also taking action on a smaller scale. A group of Google lawyers, for example, were on Capitol Hill this week lobbying senators to vote against Trump's attorney general pick Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.).
#GoogleLawyers at #SenFeinstein 's office asking her to oppose #JeffSessions for #AttorneyGeneral (phones not working, not taking chances) pic.twitter.com/J1nwQq2oSl
— Priya Sanger (@priyasanger) January 27, 2017
All the while, however, Google has been making moves, such as parting ways with the Podesta Group, to cozy up with Republicans, according to a Business Insider report.
At the end of last year, Alphabet parted ways with the Podesta Group, a Democratic-leaning lobbying firm led by Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, Bloomberg reported.
Alphabet had worked with the Podesta Group for 12 years, and Bloomberg noted that the timing coincided with a job posting at Google for someone to spearhead "conservative outreach." [...]
Schmidt, despite his prediction of "evil things," has personally been working to improve his relationship with Republican power players.
In December, Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Chairman Eric Schmidt attended the so-called tech summit at Trump Tower with Trump, along with other notable tech leaders like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
But that meeting wasn't the end. Schmidt was spotted in Trump Tower about a month after the tech summit, though it's unclear what he and Trump discussed.
Schmidt also met with Republican Sen. John Thune, who chairs the Senate's Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy before visiting Trump Tower, according to The Times.
The Washington Free Beacon has reported that Schmidt had extensive ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign—he was even spotted wearing a "staff" badge during her election night party. Schmidt has also helped raise millions for a Democrat-aligned data analytics company.