-Today, a federal communications commission
voted to repeal the Obama-era net neutrality rules.
Meanwhile, the Trump White House
was once again consumed by petty dramas.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]
Today, the Republican-led FCC voted to dismantle
the free and open Internet by repealing
former President Obama's net neutrality rules,
which were designed to ensure that all web traffic
is treated equally and prevents service providers
from blocking or filtering content
they don't want you to see.
The FCC is led by Ajit Pai, who is best known
for both his opposition to net neutrality
and for the size of his coffee mug.
-Greetings, Chairman Pai.
Mindy Hill with TheDCVoice.com.
-Hi. -And I just have a comment.
During the Obama administration, the FCC had no jurisdiction...
[ Laughter ]
...over regulating programming.
-I'm sorry, but you can't just drink from a mug that size
without any explanation.
[ Laughter ]
Was the mug always that big, or did you shrink?
Are you sharing an office with Rick Moranis?
[ Laughter ]
Is that why you want to limit the Internet,
so people can't go online and make memes about you
and your giant coffee mug?
[ Laughter ]
Now, polls show that Americans overwhelmingly
support net neutrality,
with 83% overall in favor of keeping the FCC rules,
including 75% of Republicans,
and it makes sense Republicans would favor an open Internet.
Otherwise, they'd have to get their news
from newspapers or CNN
instead of Facebook group PatriotEagleMAGA1776.
[ Laughter ]
Net neutrality ensures an open and democratic Internet,
where people can make and access content equally.
But Pai has argued that limiting regulation of the Internet
would actually encourage companies to innovate more,
and he keeps using one phrase in particular.
-Until 2015, we had light-touch regulation.
The consumer is best served with light-touch regulation.
It's under that light-touch framework --
Light-touch regulation --
And that's the kind of success that we want to promote
in the future, with light-touch regulation.
-Please stop using the term "light touch."
You sound like someone defending themselves to HR.
[ Laughter ]
"What did Deborah say I did? That was a light touch!"
[ Laughter and applause ]
You were there! It was light!"
And yet despite the potentially disastrous consequences
of this vote, D.C. and the Trump White House in particular
have been consumed once again by chaos and drama,
like, for example the firing of longtime Trump ally Omarosa.
Now, Omarosa's official job title
was Communications Director for the Office of Public Liaison,
but no one was ever really sure
exactly what she did in the White House.
In fact, before she was fired, all anyone had ever heard
about Omarosa's time in the White House
was that she held a photo shoot with her bridesmaids
there in April before getting married.
Politico reported that Omarosa brought members
of her 39-person bridal party to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
for an extended wedding photo shoot,
catching fellow senior aides and some security officials
by surprise in her bridal attire.
The visitors loudly wandered around,
looking to snap photos in the Rose Garden
and throughout the West Wing.
Oh, my God. Trump's staff treats the White House
the way tourists treat the M&M Store.
[ Laughter ]
"I want a picture with the green one!"
[ Laughter ]
Also, 39 bridesmaids?
Is it a massive wedding,
or are you just trying to make one friend feel really terrible?
"I'm sorry, Becky, the max was 39,
and you're my 40th best friend."
[ Laughter ]
Now, apparently, it was Chief of Staff John Kelly
who did the firing, although Trump signed off on it,
reporting that was confirmed by April Ryan,
White House correspondent of American Urban Radio Networks,
in one especially great moment
when Ryan called back to Trump's famous catchphrase.
-So, General Kelly had had enough,
and he'd finally gotten the President to sign off.
And last night, it did not end well.
-She was a contestant on "The Apprentice,"
President Trump's former TV program,
so they have a history. They go way back.
-And she was fired again. -Twice, yeah.
-All right.
I don't know if he said, "You're fired."
-He didn't say, "You're fired,"
but General Kelly said, "You're fired."
-All right. Everybody stand by.
There's more news.
-Damn, look at her sipping from her mug while she says that.
The only way that would've been better,
if she had Ajit Pai's mug.
[ Laughter ]
Today on "Good Morning America,"
Omarosa claimed that the stories about her exit
from the White House were not true.
Specifically, she refuted reports that
she blew up at Kelly and had to be escorted
off the White House premises.
In fact, Omarosa said that she didn't make a scene
and that Kelly fired her in a very private place.
-I resigned, and I didn't do that in the residence,
as being reported.
John Kelly and I sat down in the Situation Room,
which is a very secure, very quiet room in the White House.
-Wow, the Situation Room.
Though I have a feeling any room Omarosa goes into
becomes a Situation Room.
[ Laughter ]
Seriously, you know it's bad when they have to fire you
in the same place they killed Osama Bin Laden.
[ Laughter ]
Omarosa --
[ Cheers and applause ]
Omarosa also claimed she had a story to tell
and would eventually tell that story
once her tenure at the White House
is officially over.
And later, when the "GMA" anchors
were discussing the interview,
Robin Roberts gave her the perfect sendoff.
-She said she has a story to tell,
and I'm sure she'll be selling that story.
-We'll see.
-Yeah, she will. Bye, Felicia.
-Damn. [ Laughter and applause ]
D-a-a-amn!
I wish all news anchors signed off that way.
That's how Edward R. Murrow should've signed off
during the McCarthy era.
"Good night, good luck, and bye, Felicia."
[ Laughter ]
Now, of course, it's never fun to relish anyone's firing,
but Omarosa routinely attacked Trump's critics
and even went so far as to threaten people who crossed him.
And while Robin Roberts might have been ice-cold,
others were less muted in their reactions to Omarosa's firing,
like CNN commentator Angela Rye.
-Brooke, I'm gonna do what you can't do
and what April and Symone are too good of people to do,
and that's just gonna be petty for a minute.
Ahh-ha-ha-ha-ha!
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, Angela. Oh, Angela.
-Bye, girl! Bye!
Goodbye, good riddance, goodbye.
Deuces. Out.
-Angela, you know I have much love for you,
but you know what?
I don't delight in anyone's demise.
-I'm not delighting in her demise.
I wish her the best, but ahh-ha-ha!
[ Laughter and applause ]
-I'm not sure you can really say, "I wish her the best"...
[ Laughter ]
...when it's followed by this.
-Ahh! [ Laughter ]
-When she did that, I'm pretty sure the closed captioning said,
"I wish her the best -- psych!"
[ Laughter ]
But, of course, Omarosa is not the only
longtime Trump acolyte who's suddenly on the outs.
There's also former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon,
an early and vocal backer of Roy Moore in Alabama.
Bannon went to war with the GOP establishment
and managed to lose a Senate seat in arguably
the most Republican state in the country,
and that has led to many Republicans turning on him,
like New York Republican Congressman Peter King,
who did not hold back in an interview on CNN on Wednesday.
-Why Bannon? Why is he such a big deal?
-I was even ready -- not even so much as a political issue.
Almost as a moral issue.
This guy does not belong on the national stage.
He looks like some disheveled drunk
that wandered onto the political stage.
-Hey, Peter King, you doing my job now?
[ Laughter ]
I'll do the "looks like" jokes around here.
Steve Bannon looks like a cop
who went undercover to solve a case,
and then they forgot to tell him the case was solved,
so he just stayed undercover for another 10 years.
[ Laughter and applause ]
"I got a lead!"
So, Republicans on the FCC are trying to dismantle
the free and open Internet, despite overwhelming opposition,
and the Trump White House is consumed once again
by petty drama.
I don't know how long it'll be before Republicans
are kicked out of office, but when it happens,
I hope it's reported like this.
-Bye, Felicia.
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]