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Former President Barack Obama waited until the dust settled among all the Democratic presidential candidates, but he's fully throwing his support behind Joe Biden now.

Obama opened a video message with an uplifting sentiment about the fight against coronavirus and gave a thank you to those on the frontlines. He then transitioned to the political side ... saying, "That's why I'm so proud to endorse Joe Biden as President of the United States."

Obama then goes in on Trump and Republicans, saying, "One thing everybody has learned by now, the Republicans running the White House and the U.S. Senate are not interested in progress, they're interested in power."

At one point he mentions the failure of the Trump administration in containing the coronavirus, saying Republicans ignored the science of pandemics just as they ignored the science of climate change ... reminding everyone of the importance of honesty and informativeness from a President.

Biden was obviously thrilled with the endorsement, tweeting just a few minutes later, "Barack — This endorsement means the world to Jill and me. We’re going to build on the progress we made together, and there’s no one I’d rather have standing by my side."

Obama's backing of Biden comes just a day after Bernie Sanders joined Joe on a livestream to offer his endorsement, as well. Sanders dropped out of the race last week, seemingly leaving the nomination to Biden.

Joe told Bernie if he does indeed become the nominee, he's going to need Sanders' help "not just to win the campaign, but to govern."

Biden will certainly need more of Obama's help to defeat Trump, as well. The good news is ... 44 has been getting back out there more lately, mostly on social media to post helpful info about the coronavirus pandemic.

Ya gotta think he'll pivot to pushing his party to vote for Joe now though ... especially since it's been his goal to unite Democrats after all the primary chaos cooled down.

The fallout continues ...

NASCAR star Kyle Larson has been fired by his team, Chip Ganassi Racing, after using the n-word during an iRacing event.

"After much consideration, Chip Ganassi Racing has determined that it will end its relationship with driver Kyle Larson," the team said.

"As we said before, the comments that Kyle made were both offensive and unacceptable especially given the values of our organization."

The statement continued, "As we continued to evaluate the situation with all the relevant parties, it became obvious that this was the only appropriate course of action to take."

The 27-year-old dropped an n-bomb during a virtual race on Easter Sunday ... apparently not realizing his audio was streaming out to thousands of people on Twitch.

After crashing during Lap 6, Larson apparently had a difficult time communicating with other drivers and said -- "You can't hear me? Hey, n*****."

Larson apologized on Monday -- but sponsors (including McDonald's and Credit One Bank) dropped him anyway.

Damon Dash's pockets could be a tad lighter soon ... 'cause he's been ordered to cough up a cool $300k in a lawsuit over a mafia movie.

The movie and music producer was just ordered to pay noted author Edwyna Brooks after he took an L in court. She sued him about a year ago claiming they struck a deal in 2015 for Damon to direct the mafia boss film, "Mafietta," based on her series of books.

But, according to docs, obtained by TMZ, Brooks claimed things quickly went south after he agreed to direct the film. She claimed Dash wasted production time and money on his side projects ... like filming a music video.

She said she fired him from the project but claims that didn't stop Dash from claiming co-authorship over the movie and trying to sell it on iTunes and his Dame Dash Studios website .... all without Brooks' permission.

Brooks sued for damages ... and the judge agreed with her claims and awarded her $300k in damages plus interest. This, of course, will only add to Dash's legal woes.

Dame tells us, "The copyright claim was incorrectly decided in our opinion as you were the dominant author. In any event the damages awarded were based on pure speculation so both findings are being appealed."

Playboi Carti went all Johnny Badass on a cop who pulled him over -- according to the cop, anyway, Carti dragged the deputy's daughter into it!!!

TMZ got a hold of the police report detailing Carti's arrest about a week ago in Clayton County, Georgia -- and cops say the rapper was mouthing off big time when a Sheriff's deputy pulled him over and smelled weed.

The deputy says he asked Carti to get out, and the bad attitude started right away. Carti allegedly told the officer to take him to jail and said he didn't even care anymore.

Upon conducting a search, the deputy says he found drugs and guns inside Carti's Lambo -- specifically, marijuana, Xanax, codeine and oxycodone and 2 handguns. Carti had a pal with him and cops arrested both of them ... but the trash-talking wasn't done yet.

According to the officer, Carti told him he'd "f*** my daughter" and that he had a hot wife. He also allegedly said he didn't give a damn about his exotic sports car, cause he'd just buy another one anyway.

In the end, Carti was booked for expired tags, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and failure to move over. His buddy ended up getting busted for the harder drug and gun possession charges.

Carti was released on bond shortly afterward.

Joe Exotic was a master magician with a huge bag of tricks, according to his old magic promos -- but of course, he still couldn't make Carole Baskin disappear.

TMZ's obtained some never-before-seen footage of Joe's old magic show ... from a 6-minute highlight reel. The promo was never intended for the public, but for the venues where Joe booked his high-paying gigs.

As you know, the 'Tiger King' star had a traveling tiger and magic show in addition to his zoo, and he made tons of stops at malls, shopping centers and theaters across the country ... before Carole got involved.

Joe's promo is everything you would expect from the entertainment genius ... it's called, "Mystical of The Endangered," and it shows Joe performing magic with tons of exotic beasts.

There's sword tricks, pyrotechnics, a mime, vanishing, illusions and lots and lots of animals ... tigers, snakes and parrots, oh my!

JP Wilson, the magician from 'Tiger King,' tells TMZ ... he met Joe back in 2004 during a magic show in Norman, OK where Joe supplied him with a tiger. JP says Joe was so impressed with his magic, Exotic brought him on tour.

Eventually, Joe wanted to be the magician and JP says he taught him some tricks. Joe and JP worked together for years, until Carole and the animal rights folks shut down Joe's traveling performances.

JP says he remained close with Joe and would visit the zoo a couple times a year, even sponsoring a tiger at one point.

The wildest part ... JP firmly believes if Carole and the animal rights people didn't get Joe's traveling show shut down, and cut off his main source of income, Joe wouldn't have been forced into breeding tigers.

Long before Ed Brown was a star of "90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days," he was just a young man striking a GQ-esque pose at a zoo ... he tells us so himself.

Brown -- AKA "Big Ed" -- confirms with TMZ ... a viral photo that began circulating on social media this weekend is indeed him, way back in 1988.

Big Ed tells us he was on his second date with his now ex-wife at the San Diego Zoo when the pic of him -- looking tan and serious in all-white duds -- was snapped.

He says he thinks the photo was swiped from his private Facebook page, and someone posted it.

Here he is circa 1995 -- striking a very similar pose -- while working at an El Torito in Southern California. He says he got a job there while he was earning his Master's in architecture.

If you aren't familiar, Big Ed's relationship with his Filipina GF, Rose, has been a hot-button topic on this season of '90 Day Fiance' ... for a number of reasons.

He tells us it's done wonders for his photography business though. Ed says he's received requests from people all over the world asking him to shoot with them ... everything from family photos to model shots.

Tekashi 6ix9ine is embracing his role as a rat ... or so it seems based on what he told Tory Lanez.

So, here's what went down ... Tory was hosting his Quarantine Radio Monday night on Instagram Live when, out of nowhere, you see Tekashi's IG handle pop up in the group chat. Tekashi typed, "lemme play this new s**t or ima snitch on u. you not even from America u from Canada."

Ya gotta watch Tory's reaction. It's pretty epic. Unclear if Tekashi actually has some new music he wants to show the masses, but now that he's on house arrest it's not so far fetched to think he's got something up his sleeve.

As for snitching on Tory ... it's unclear what about. Tory, btw, just last week had his Instagram Live session privileges restored by IG, which banned Tory from going Live after some nudity appeared in one of his sessions.

But no beef seems to be brewing between the rappers. Tekashi and Tory have some history ... good history. Tekashi's 2018 track "Kika" on the "Dummy Boy" album features Tory.

Again ... Tekashi just seems to be embracing the snitch role.

Hockey fans paid their respects to Colby Cave in an awesome way Monday ... lining up cars for over 9 MILES to welcome the player's family back to his hometown after his tragic death.

As we previously reported ... the 25-year-old Edmonton Oilers center suffered a brain bleed early last week -- and despite emergency surgery, he passed away on Saturday.

On Monday, his family returned to North Battleford in Saskatchewan with a law enforcement escort ... and the love people showed the Cave fam on their way home was pretty amazing.

Fans parked their cars all along the shoulder of Highway 16 -- despite snow and freezing temps -- and displayed their appreciation for the Caves all along the route with signs and cheers.

In fact, former Oilers defenseman Eric Gryba even participated ... taking a selfie in front of the cars and writing, "a heartbreaking and heartwarming time."

"Over 15km of parked cars welcoming Colby's parents and sister home to North Battleford," Cave's wife, Emily, said of the scene. "Unfortunately, I had to stay behind with Colby's body in Ontario."

"My heart is broken. My heart is full. North Battleford, thank you for honoring your hometown hockey hero."

Cave grew up playing hockey in North Battlefield before he eventually moved on to the NHL as an undrafted player in 2015.

"Love Is Blind" star Carlton Morton is playing a game of love-ya-today, trash-ya-tomorrow with his one-time fiancee, which is why she's kicked him to the curb ... for good.

Diamond Jack tells TMZ why she recently took the extreme measure of blocking Carlton on social media. He's been barking about it on his page, as he openly pines for her to take him back. She says there's a pretty simple reason for her cutting him off.

Diamond says Carlton was all hugs and smiles with her during the reunion episode, but as soon as cameras stopped rolling ... she claims he turned into Mr. Hyde, and allegedly started bad-mouthing her online and threatening her with legal action.

That was enough for Diamond to completely ax him from her feed. But, there's a bigger reason she thinks he's allegedly been flip-flopping, and it has to do with the forthcoming second season -- which we already know Carlton is openly lobbying to join.

As we reported, the casting call for a new season has already gone out -- and producers are prodding about sexual orientation this time around.

Makes sense, seeing how Carlton's bisexuality utterly blew up his and Diamond's relationship during Season 1.

Speaking of that, Diamond weighs in on the new screening question for the new batch of pod-people. Basically, she sees it as a pivot from a lesson learned more than anything else.

India-born vocalist Barry Hay was 25 years old when he shot to stardom for his rockin' vocals in the Dutch rock band, Golden Earring ... who unleashed the worldwide rock anthem, "Radar Love" in the early '70s, and then "Twilight Zone" in the early '80s.

Barry Hay and all of the original bandmates of Golden Earring are all still involved in the classic rock consortium including George Kooymans on guitar and back-up vocals, Rinus Gerritsen on bass and keyboards and Cesar Zuiderwijk on the skins.

Golden Earring played as recently as last November ... and have plans to play live later this year.