TMZ Live

Elon Musk's handing over the keys to a SpaceX rocket to Jared Isaacman -- a billionaire himself, and pilot who's preparing to lead the first-ever, all-civilian spaceflight.

Jared joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and told us all about the historic mission set to blast off this October, and what he's looking forward to most once he and 3 other civilians get into orbit.

Elon announced Monday Jared will be Commander for the trip, and he's already started some hands-on training for the SpaceX Dragon capsule. Sounds like he'll be ready to override the automatic pilot, if necessary, but don't worry ... he's an accomplished pilot with a flying speed record to his name.

It's pretty cool ... Jared's bringing 3 other civilians to space for a multi-day trip around the Earth, and he tells us how 2 lucky people can snag spots on the capsule by donating to a great cause.

For now, Isaacman Rocketman's trying to stay grounded and take the mission preparations day by day -- but you can tell he's champing at the bit to get some serious pilot bragging rights.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger is fed up with today's Republican Party ... so he's starting a movement to reclaim the GOP ... and he's even open to becoming its standard-bearer.

The Republican Congressman from Illinois appeared on "TMZ Live" Monday and said he launched his Country First PAC because of the state of his party, which has embraced Donald Trump's big lie that the election was stolen ... and that's just for starters.

Kinzinger -- who is one of 10 GOP members who voted to impeach Donald Trump -- acknowledges there's a wrestling match of sorts within the party.  He thought eyes would open after the January 6th insurrection ... he uses the metaphor of a Friday night bender to describe what he thought would be a turning point for the party, but that didn't happen.

So the Congressman has made it clear ... he will be a leader in the movement he's starting, and turns out there are like-minded members of Congress who are quietly supporting his effort.  There are also lots of Republicans who are sick and tired of people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others with crazy conspiracy theories ... who may find a home in Kinzinger's camp.

Wendy Williams is beaming about Lifetime's movie and documentary covering her life and career, and not only because they're helping her get revenge on her ex-husband.

The talk show host joined "TMZ Live" Friday and in true Wendy fashion was not afraid to throw equal amounts of shade -- for Kevin Hunter -- and praise ... for the cast of her biopic.

Wendy tells us she developed a friendship with Ciera Payton -- the actress playing her in "Wendy Williams: The Movie" -- and says she really put her all into the role. Same goes for Morocco Omari -- who Wendy says she hand-picked to play Kevin.

As you know ... Kevin and Wendy were together for more than 20 years, have a son together and worked together, but things ended very bitterly. Actually, as she explained, it was bitter long before the end.

"Wendy Williams: The Movie" and the companion documentary, "Wendy Williams: What a Mess!" premiere Saturday night on Lifetime -- and yes ... she'll be watching.

One might say Mark Cuban's got a baby shark on his hands -- his 11-year-old son got in on the Robinhood craze, but in just one day he learned some tough lessons.

The "Shark Tank" star joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and told us all about his fam's newest trader, Jake, who was flying high Wednesday, when he opened his Robinhood account and picked up a couple shares of AMC and BlackBerry.

Mark says Jake was riding high as he turned his first trades into seemingly easy money -- but like millions of investors, Thursday morning turned into a learning experience for him.

Pop had to break it down for Jake -- what goes up sometimes comes way down. Like, way down.

Fortunately for Jake, his father is a billionaire, so this lesson won't cost him everything -- he only invested about $100, anyway. But, watch the clip ... Mark taught his son something else about how to react when a stock you like suddenly plummets.

Stock school aside, Jake is ticked off about Robinhood shutting down trades -- and Mark told us why the free-trading app has some explaining to do.

Jordan Belfort's all for the little guys getting rich, and taking on Wall Street's establishment -- but he warns they're going about it the wrong way, and might get burned.

Let's face it, the "Wolf of Wall Street" understands what the subreddit, WallStreetBets, is doing more than just about anyone, but Thursday on "TMZ Live" he told us they should be investing their money into winning companies ... not failing ones like GameStop, BlackBerry or AMC.

If you've seen the movie, you know Jordan infamously battled stock-shorting hedge fund managers ... and made a fortune doing it. He says the Reddit guys are basically doing what he did, but with the benefit of the Internet.

But, here's the irony ... the Wolf says he gets why Robinhood and other online platforms are stopping normies from trading the junk stocks -- it comes down to liability. When the little guys start losing their shirts, or homes, Jordan says they'll start suing ... and Robinhood's trying to dodge that.

One of President Biden's Senior Advisors says the Prez is laser-focused on fulfilling campaign promises, and unlike the previous POTUS ... he's not thirsting for the spotlight.

Former Congressman Cedric Richmond -- who now serves as Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement -- joined "TMZ Live" Thursday to run down the record-setting list of executive orders Biden's signed. It's the most ever for a President during his first week in office.

Richmond tells us these orders are all Constitutionally-sound and address some of the most important issues for the nation in the eyes of the administration.

That includes COVID vaccines and recovery, protecting Dreamers, racial equity, climate change and, of course, overturning some Trump-era policies.

As for Trump ... the current Prez isn't concerned about all the media attention his predecessor continues to get. Richmond compared Biden to a certain Hall of Fame football star known for scoring a lot of touchdowns.

Adam Carolla is still not a fan of Gov. Gavin Newsom ... if anything, the comedian's more furious as he suspects there's a political motive behind Newsom lifting COVID restrictions in Cali.

The comedian joined "TMZ Live" on Tuesday and said the fact Newsom just lifted restrictions to allow outdoor dining and other businesses to reopen makes the order feel like the initial restrictions were random and arbitrary. To Adam's point, SoCal's ICU capacity is still near 0% -- however, state modeling predicts it will rise to 33.3% in the next 4 weeks.

That being said ... Adam feels Newsom only caved to lift restrictions because he's feeling the heat from a recall campaign that's picked up steam.

As you know ... Adam's had beef with the California Gov. for some time now. Adam voiced his support last month for recalling Newsom ... because he was pissed about outdoor dining getting shut down. In his eyes ... he saw no proof to connect outdoor dining to massive outbreaks of COVID cases.

If Newsom does face a recall, Adam's got his mind set on a replacement -- how about a banjo case? Seriously, he explained that choice.

Air travel could be a lot safer than it is now, when it comes to COVID-19 -- instead of relying on the honor system to screen passengers, dogs that can sniff the virus could be deployed.

The dogs are being trained at Florida International University, and Dr. DeEtta Mills, who's leading the program, joined us Monday on "TMZ Live" to explain how the canines get up to snuff.

The good doc says their program is similar to how dogs learn to detect bombs and drugs -- but instead of explosives and contraband, trainers used discarded face masks from COVID-positive patients.

The NBA's Miami Heat are about to start using coronavirus-sniffing dogs to screen fans at AmericanAirlines Arena ... and Dr. Mills thinks our airlines and airports could adopt the process too.

Virus-sniffing dogs are already being used to detect COVID-19 in Chile, United Arab Emirates and Finland. Researchers say the highly-trained canines detect the disease with almost 100% accuracy.

Dave Chappelle clearly thinks there's nothing funny about potential exposure to COVID-19 -- much less contracting it -- because he went all out to keep his Austin shows as safe as possible.

That's according to his pal, Donnell Rawlings, who joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday and revealed Chappelle had strict COVID protocols in place for everyone -- from performers and staffers to servers and every single audience member.

Donnell tells us he's never worked with anyone who takes as much precaution as Chappelle. In fact, Donnell says Dave dropped a whopping $300k to have people tested in his community of Yellow Springs, Ohio for his shows there last year.

As for how Chappelle contracted the virus ... Donnell says he doesn't know and wonders ... how does anyone really know? That being said ... he's all down for strict measures, and he's glad his comedian pal's taking it seriously.

So much so ... Donnell said, "Dave Chappelle is addicted to corona testing people so much he violated my nose for 2 months."

Alice Marie Johnson's paying it forward by helping prisoners gain their freedom, and Snoop Dogg's witnessed her commitment firsthand ... which she describes as the most rewarding thing she's ever done.

As you know ... Alice is the grandmother whose sentence was famously commuted by President Trump in 2018 thanks to Kim Kardashian lobbying for her, and she joined "TMZ Live" Wednesday to explain why she's now doing the same for others.

Alice tells us the feeling she got Tuesday night celebrating with the families of those freed from prison in Trump's final round of presidential pardons and commutations was awesome ... even more so than her own release.

That's pretty incredible ... considering this is how that emotional moment went down in June 2018.

Alice says having such a positive impact on others' lives is unmatched, and that's why she started her own organization not just to free prisoners ... but to assist them on re-entry back into the real world.

As we reported ... that's the next step for Snoop's pal, Death Row Records co-founder Michael 'Harry-O' Harris ... whose sentence was commuted by Trump after heavy lobbying from Alice and Snoop.

The daughter who publicly ID'd her own mother as a bloodied participant in the Capitol riots feels some guilt for calling her mom out ... but says she doesn't regret it, for several reasons.

Helena Duke joined "TMZ Live" Monday to add some context to why she decided to out her mother, Therese Duke, in a viral clip where Therese gets punched by a security guard outside the Capitol after the insurrection.

Helena says her mom lied to her about her whereabouts on January 6 -- claiming she was getting a medical procedure -- so she wouldn't have known Therese attended the riots ... if not for the video of her getting punched.

As for why Therese was in D.C. ... Helena believes Donald Trump radicalized her mother about a year into his Presidency. She says it was "unsettling" how her mom flipped from lifelong Democrat to far-right Republican.

If you missed it ... the day after the riots, Helena commented on the vid of her mother getting punched -- "hi mom remember the time you told me I shouldn’t go to BLM protests bc they could get violent...this you?"

Shortly afterward she went a step further by publicly ID'ing her mom, aunt and uncle as attending the riot.

Therese has since been fired from her job at a Massachusetts hospital ... which stated her termination was linked to her being involved in the Capitol violence.

Rep. Jim Clyburn says the Republican members of Congress who want to be armed on the House floor are striking fear into colleagues -- and he believes they might have ill intentions.

The Congressman from South Carolina dropped his bombshell Wednesday on "TMZ Live" ... revealing his suspicion of several GOP legislators who refused to go through metal detectors Tuesday night at the Capitol. He says some of them were armed, and that made other Reps nervous.

That's because, according to Clyburn, some of the armed lawmakers might be suspected of helping the pro-Trump insurrectionists ... part of a possible inside job.

Rep. Clyburn says other Congressmen and women are afraid these armed lawmakers might do "crazy things" while on the House floor.

On a less dividing note ... Clyburn told us why he recently introduced legislation to make "Lift Every Voice and Sing" the official national hymn in the U.S.

Congressman Tim Ryan isn't mincing words over the coup attempt -- he was "f****** livid" when the mob stormed the Capitol, because law enforcement assured Congress it would be safe.

The U.S. Rep. from Ohio joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and told us why there's no excuse for the lack of security during the insurrection ... he says security forces should've been prepared for the worst, and now Congress needs to get to the bottom of what went wrong.

Tim says he's glad to see more boots on the ground in D.C. this week as the National Guard is mobilizing at least 10,000 troops ahead of next week's inauguration ... the sort of move he would've liked to have seen before the riot.

As we told you ... Congress was just briefed on the 7 main groups of extremists organizing to descend on the Capitol for Joe Biden's inauguration and the days leading up to it.

Miya Ponsetto's arrest for attempted robbery -- after attacking a 14-year-old boy and accusing him of stealing her phone -- isn't nearly enough, according to the child's parents ... who insist racism was involved in the incident.

Keyon Harrold Jr.'s mom and dad -- Kat and Keyon Sr. -- joined us on "TMZ Live," along with their attorney, Ben Crump, to address Ponsetto being taken into custody ... more than 2 weeks after her altercation with the teenager at a SoHo hotel.

But, the so-called SoHo Karen's arrest led to a much bigger discussion about ongoing examples of racial injustice in the country, which Crump says was also highlighted during the historic events in the Capitol this week.

As for the incident with Ponsetto and Harrold Jr. ... Keyon's parents say he's still in therapy to deal with the aftermath. His mom and dad are worried about PTSD, and Kat describes the trauma as something her son doesn't deserve ... same goes for countless people of color before him.

Kat goes on to lay blame on the SoHo hotel for its role in Ponsetto's attack on her son, claiming it enabled her to lay hands on him.

As we reported ... Ponsetto has denied her attack of Harrold had anything to do with race -- instead, her lawyer says it was anxiety-induced -- and our law enforcement sources say she will not be charged for any sort of hate crime.

Rep. Karen Bass is outraged and saddened about the ordeal she and all of Congress endured -- and can't help thinking the Capitol attack would've been thwarted if rioters weren't Trump supporters.

The Congresswoman from California's 37th district joined "TMZ Live" Thursday to recount the terror of the moment lawmakers had to be evacuated ... a shocking event she calls ironic ... in a couple of ways.

First of all, Bass says she anticipated things getting dicey on the streets of D.C. ... but she told her family she'd be safe and sound inside the typically heavily guarded Capitol.

Secondly, she believes the protesters-turned-rioters were almost enabled by the authorities to do what they did. Rep. KB says it stands in stark contrast to what happened during last summer's Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Her implication is pretty clear, and it all comes back to President Trump ... who still has 13 days left in office. If you think Bass isn't concerned about that even though the riots are over ... think again.

As she points out ... it's not just his actions yesterday that are troubling, but his behavior on social media over the course of his presidency and his plethora of recent lamed duck hirings and firings

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says while the 305 was once a hot spot for COVID-19 infections, his city's found a way to turn the page ... while other major cities are struggling.

The Mayor joined "TMZ Live" Thursday and touted Miami's progress in battling the coronavirus -- a stark contrast to what L.A. County is dealing with right now. He harkened back to some dark days last summer when Miami averaged 3,500 new cases per day, but says they're down to 2,500 per day.

Suarez says their hospitalization numbers are even better.

As for why L.A. is doing so much worse ... with much stricter restrictions and business closings -- Mayor Suarez says Miami's citizens are "hardwired" to do the basics ... wear masks, social distance and frequently wash their hands.

Doesn't seem like there's any magic solution there, but it's hard to argue it's not working. L.A.'s nightclubs, bars and restaurants are closed -- indoors and outdoors -- while Miami's wide open. Celebs like Diddy, Teyana Taylor and others are taking full advantage ... though we didn't see much social distancing at those events.