Controversial S#!T

Charlamagne Tha God is as real as they come, and he kept it real with us about the outrage over Kendall Jenner's hairdo in Vogue ... saying that s*** is no 'fro.

The 'Breakfast Club' host was leaving a Barnes & Noble in NYC Tuesday -- after promoting his new book, 'Shook One' -- and told us Kendall's 'do simply wasn't an afro, as many claimed amid the backlash against Vogue and the model.

He's got a hilarious explanation for why her hair doesn't compare to a true 'fro -- and, more importantly, he says he's not offended by this "cultural appropriation." One other fun fact ... Charlamagne doesn't really care about Kendall that much. Whodathunkit?!

On a serious note ... Charlamagne's got some tips for people thinking of rocking costumes that don't reflect their own culture. The guidelines might seem pretty simple but, then again Megyn Kelly said blackface at Halloween used to be cool.

Megyn later apologized for that comment in an email to her NBC coworkers.

Senator Mitch McConnell says he will not be intimidated from the "far left" mob ... this is his reaction to the angry confrontation at a Louisville restaurant over the weekend.

The Senate Majority Leader is reacting to the video TMZ posted Saturday ... where an irate man pounded his fists on the table where McConnell and his wife were eating dinner. As we reported, before the video was shot, the man grabbed their doggie bag and hurled the food out the door.

McConnell says it clear as day ... "I will not be intimidated." He goes on to decry a spreading mob mentality that he says is prevalent among the far left, but insists he will continue doing his job and focusing on issues that matter to the nation ... like the opioid crisis.

Mitch also says that the type of behavior he and his wife experienced is becoming more common thanks to prominent liberal leaders like Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, who recently said ... "When they go low, we kick 'em."

McConnell decries, "One side can continue to hurl mud, hatred, and toxic behavior until we reach a breaking point."

Politicians left and right have been run out of restaurants lately, including Ted Cruz and, of course, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

President Trump was dead-on when he said calling himself a "nationalist" is old-fashioned, but the old era he's referring to is called Nazi Germany ... according to Congressman Eric Swalwell.

Rep. Swalwell was on TMZ Live talking about Trump bragging he's a proud nationalist, who doesn't so much care about the rest of the world. Swalwell says that kind of rhetoric is best left in the past ... just like Nazism and slavery.

The Congressman says POTUS needs to understand there's a clear difference between patriotism and nationalism -- namely, that one is rooted in believing there are superior cultures.

Eric also takes issue with the President's response -- or lack thereof -- to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia's Turkish consulate.

9:26 AM PT -- A rep for Costume Agent, which originally created and distributed the controversial Caitlyn costume, tells TMZ they're not yanking it from their own site, and certainly not discontinuing it ... backlash be damned.

We're told the 'stume is one of their best sellers -- it's the #6 overall bestseller. Although they have received multiple threats over it this past week, they're standing by their product. The rep says, "It's a costume. It's funny."

A Caitlyn Jenner costume -- which harkens back to her Olympic glory days as Bruce Jenner -- is getting destroyed by critics who say it's insensitive to transgender people ... and it's already being yanked from at least one outlet.

The getup is called "I Am Cait" ... and features a decathlete's jersey with Bruce's number 935, a gold medal and those teeny tiny shorts -- all of that vintage Bruce from his 1976 decathlon victory. However, it also comes with a long-haired wig that's all Caitlyn.

eBay was flooded with criticism for selling the $44.95 costume -- several transgender charities are calling it out as mocking, instead of being an homage.

The caption for one online promo says, "Show your love for Caitlyn Jenner with this awesome adult costume."

The backlash has been enough for eBay to remove the costume, but as of now ... it's still available on Amazon.

Kendall Jenner is once again in the crosshairs of controversy after Vogue featured her in a new photo shoot where she's rockin' an afro ... and the fashion mag blinked.

The supermodel appears in a new Vogue story that's running in November where she's wearing a variety of Brock Collection dresses ... and sporting a 'fro-style 'do. Her hair was frizzy and teased-out (nothing like her usual style) ... and some people got pissed, claiming cultural appropriation and questioning why Vogue didn't use a black model.

People flooded the comment section of Vogue's Instagram post showing off Kendall's puffed-out hairstyle, and openly speculated about the connotations and intentions behind booking a white girl for the gig ... with some calling the move racist and demeaning to black women.

Vogue now says Kendall's hair was simply reflecting the "Edwardian/Gibson Girl" style they were going for with the Brock Collection. FWIW ... a quick google search shows that women of that era did, in fact, have similar hairstyles.

Either way, Vogue eventually apologized, explaining it did not mean to offend anyone.

Saquon Barkley is great -- but imagine how much better he'd be if he wasn't running behind the NY Giants "sorry" ass offensive line ... so says Eric Dickerson.

The NFL Hall of Famer was at the 29 at Rocco’s Tavern event in Studio City -- where we had to ask the running back if he thinks Barkley has a shot at his rookie rushing yards record (1,808).

But, ED shot that down -- saying, if Saquon wants to have a shot at ANY record, he needs help from the big boys up front ... and right now, that group is playing like trash.

The good news for Barkley -- ED says Todd Gurley was in a similar situation a few years ago, but the Rams brought in the help he needed, and now he's exploding all over the NFL.

The message -- "I don't care how great you are, if you're not getting the blocks, it's not gonna happen."

Police were dispatched to billionaire Democratic philanthropist George Soros' home after an explosive device was found in his mailbox ... and there's suspicion the culprits may be part of right wing extremists.

The Bedford Police Department got a call from one of Soros' employees ... saying an explosive device was found Monday at his home in a suburb north of NYC. Cops say the employee opened the package and discovered the contraption.

A flood of local and federal agents responded to the scene -- including folks from ATF and the FBI -- and bomb squads were reportedly able to disarm it by proactively detonating it.

Soros was not home at the time ... and the FBI is on the hunt.

The well-known Dem has incurred the ire of many extreme right-wing groups, and has also been target of anti-Semites. He donates lots of money to Democratic candidates and progressive causes ... as well as more than $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations to promote democracy worldwide.

"Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta" star Spice has a lot of people talking the day she's pushing out new music -- but they're not talking about her singing -- it's her white face.

Spice posted a pretty shocking image of herself with super light skin Monday along with a message about her new mixtape.

A rep for Spice tells us there's a track on the mixtape called "Black Hypocrisy" -- thus the look.

Spice also deleted all her other posts ... which puts the spotlight on the new pic.

Fans were clearly not digging it, saying, "Wow I can't believe this, Spice! What the F**K have you done?" Another wrote, "Girl you look crazy af."

Actress Candis Cayne is outraged at President Trump's reported plan to enforce strict new guidelines about transgender people -- because she says his real goal is silencing the community.

Candis -- who is transgender and was featured on her pal Caitlyn Jenner's reality show -- went on "The Morning Beat" with Jai and Mikalah Monday on Out Now Radio ... and ripped Trump. She thinks it's obvious he wants to shut down any national conversation about trans people, and adds ... the policy change could have bigger implications for our democracy.

If you missed it, the Trump administration is considering a plan that would identify everyone by their genitalia ... at birth, according to a NY Times report. The trans community is pissed, as you'd expect.

Although Caitlyn had been a vocal Trump supporter, she's flipped lately -- at least on some issues -- and on Monday afternoon, she made it clear she's lockstep with Candis on Trump's reported new policy.

T.I.'s Melania Trump look-alike is dealing with a brand new death threat ... one so frightening, it's pushed her over the edge and now police are involved.

Melanie Marden went to the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station Sunday night to report an especially ominous and lengthy death threat via text to her personal cell phone. We're told the text mentioned the hiring of an assassin to kill her.

Melanie met with the cops and filed a report.

We're told the sender of the messages to Melanie told her they'd put a tracking device on her car and bugged her apartment. Part of the message read, "I am pleased to inform you that we have been paid to assassinate you by someone very close to you."

As we reported ... Melanie says she'd been receiving death threats almost daily since T.I. dropped his music video with Melanie playing the stripping First Lady. It sparked a ton of backlash, but Melanie insisted she had no regrets about taking the role.

Louis C.K. whipped out his junk in front of Sarah Silverman, and masturbated in front of her -- but she was totally cool with it ... most of the time.

Yeah, we just said that. Sarah made the pretty startling reveal Monday on the 'Howard Stern Show' ... telling Howard about her early days in comedy with Louis. She says he asked if he could masturbate, and she told him, "F**k yeah, I want to see that!"

Sarah said there were times she told him no, and he would comply. She added they'd also go streaking together while "letting our freak flags fly."

She made a very important distinction, though, between herself and the women who accused him of sexual misconduct. Sarah says she and Louis were peers, on the same level as they were getting their starts -- unlike his accusers, over whom he had power in the biz.

We got Louis a couple weeks ago in NYC, and he's definitely in better spirits these days.

Jerry Jones says Monday's team trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture was not a P.R. stunt to ingratiate him with black fans ... it was the players who pushed for the visit.

TMZ Sports spoke with the Dallas Cowboys owner outside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. -- where JJ was flanked by a team of armed guards -- and asked about the criticism he's been receiving online.

Here's the breakdown ... after the team announced the trip, there was an immediate backlash from people who called it a "PR gesture. Nothing more" to help Jerry -- who's been one of Colin Kaepernick's most vocal critics.

So, kudos to our camera guy who asked Jerry directly if it was a publicity stunt -- and this is how Jones responded.

"Well, I don’t think that the case. This is a player effort and our players wanted to do this. It’s their great idea and we sure wanted to do it and be a part of it."

Jones also raved about how much he loves D.C. -- saying the city "Makes ya proud to be a part of America."

He added, "Just to be here it’s always fabulous to get to come up here. To play Washington and get to just be reminded of what a great nation this is."

We also asked if the team was still considering bringing back Dez Bryant.

Jerry shot that down -- and defended his current WRs.

We also spoke with head coach Jason Garrett about how he plans to get the team back in the W column and why the trip to the African American Museum was important to him.

It's pretty clear now ... the Saudis planned to kill Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the get-go, because they had a decoy ready, complete with disguise.

There's surveillance video, obtained by CNN, showing Mustafa al-Madani -- apparently part of the hit squad that tortured and killed Khashoggi -- strolling around a famous Turkish Mosque just hours after Khashoggi entered the Saudi Embassy.

Al-Madani was wearing a fake beard and wearing the same outfit as Khashoggi. The 2 men are roughly the same height and weight.

The Jacksonville Jaguars offense is a dumpster fire -- but Colin Kaepernick can right the ship ... so says NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter.

"This is just free advice. Swallow your pride, pick up the phone and call Kap," Carter said on FS1's "First Things First."

"I believe he can make the difference on that football team."

The Jaguars -- and specifically Blake Bortles -- sucked this weekend. In fact, Bortles was benched in the 3rd quarter of Jacksonville's 20-7 loss to the Houston Texans.

Carter says the Jags had an opportunity to sign Kaepernick in the preseason but passed -- "it was strictly a political decision" -- but now, they need to pull Colin's phone number out of the trash.

"They made a mistake by not signing Kap," Carter said ... "They know it behind the scenes. [Co-host Nick Wright] and I know it. They talked to Kap but we know. It was strictly a political decision."

Carter explains, "He's a better thrower of the football than Blake Bortles. He's a better runner of the football. He's been a better winner. He's a better leader than Blake Bortles. So, you get what you pay for."

As we previously reported, Colin's been training every morning at 5 AM in the hopes he gets a call from an NFL team ... like the Jags.

Billy Eichner cannot contain his rage over Donald Trump, and the most recent trigger is the Trump Administration's move to rigidly define gender.

Eichner's contempt for Trump is palpable ... this in the wake of the administration's move to define gender as a "biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth."

Our photog got the "Billy on the Street" star at LAX Sunday, and he doesn't sound overly confident that a blue wave will sweep the country next month.

The verdict is in on Kevin Spacey ... at least as far as one Hollywood hot spot is concerned ... he's been 86'd from the restaurant's wall of fame mural.

Spacey used to have a prominent spot on the wall at Catch LA -- right next to NBA superstar and all-around good guy Chris Paul, and not far from Mr. Clean. Irony much? Now, he's been replaced by Sony Music honcho Clive Davis.

It's been a year since the wave of Spacey's sexual misconduct accusers started coming forward. There are multiple active investigations -- in the U.S. and the UK -- however, he has not been criminally charged.