You Might Want to Rethink

If Doug Ducey were in high school, he'd be expelled as a high school bully. Problem is ... he's the Governor of Arizona and he just seemingly mocked Joe Biden's history with stuttering.

Trump brought Ducey up to the stage Monday at a Tucson rally, and was all fire and brimstone as he told the crowd, Biden would lock down America, he'd raise taxes and make Washington D.C. a state (did not know that was an issue in Arizona).

But, a minute into his speech, he said "J-J-Joe Biden is wrong for America."

Ducey just tweeted, "I did not mock Joe Biden's stutter, nor would I ever."

Jeffrey Toobin is learning about the pitfalls of Zoom calls in the worst possible way ... and "The New Yorker" has suspended him for his blunder.

The lawyer, author and legal analyst -- who also contributes on CNN -- exposed himself on Zoom last week during a work call with the 'New Yorker' staff and WNYC radio.

Though it's unclear exactly what went down, Toobin's owning up to his baffling Zoom gaffe and has issued an apology.

He says ... "I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers." Toobin claims he thought he was not visible to others on the call, and thought he was on mute as well.

Evidently not, and "The New Yorker" says it has suspended him while they investigate what happened. It's unclear what the heck they're investigating. As Trump says, it is what it is.

Toobin did appear on CNN over the weekend, though ... but he won't be on again for a bit. The network says it has granted him time off while he "deals with a personal issue."

Anti-mask rants and dangerous COVID behavior aren't just a U.S. problem -- an angry passenger spewed her breath on fellow fliers when she was kicked off a UK flight.

The incident went down Sunday on an EasyJet flight from Belfast to Edinburgh. The woman is seen on video ranting and fuming about having been told to wear a face mask. She refused, so as she was getting the boot she yelled, "Everybody dies, you know that?!"

On her way out, the woman has the nerve to cough on passengers as she stomped down the aisle. A spokesperson for EasyJet tells TMZ ... police responded, "due to a passenger behaving disruptively onboard and refusing to wear their face covering." It's unclear if she was arrested or cited.

The spokesperson added current guidelines require all passengers to wear face coverings and, continued, "We will not tolerate disruptive [behavior] towards other passengers and crew."

Europe has a leg up on the U.S. when it comes to coronavirus infection rates, but ugly public meltdowns over it -- like we've seen in an Alaskan Walmart and a Long Island supermarket -- they got that too.

Cardi B is turning off Twitter because she says her fans are toxic -- especially after her decision to get back with Offset -- and she's not about to let them treat her like a Disney star.

CB's Twitter account is non-existent as of Monday -- this after she apparently deactivated it this weekend. The move to go dark follows a wild rant she went on Saturday on IG Live, in which she called out her fans for getting all up in her biz about her marriage.

It seems a lot of her followers are expressing concern -- or are just flat out pissed -- about her getting back with her husband. Cardi says some have even reached out to friends of hers, asking them to intervene ... suggesting she's not well for the reconciliation.

Welp, Cardi had more than ENOUGH of it.

She literally cussed out her fans ... telling them to stay in their lane, and said she's grown and will do whatever the hell she wants.

Cardi also invoked JoJo Siwa and Ariana Grande in her tirade -- saying teenage fans were engaging with her and acting as if she's a former child Disney star or something. NOPE!!!! Cardi checked them on that and told 'em to butt out ... 'cause she's got real problems.

BTW, CB also gave a little bit of insight into why she can't just up and go date someone new so easily ... saying she's not your average Jane who can play the field on the low.

Remember, already Cardi touched on this issue of an over-invasive fanbase infiltrating her real life, but in much more joke-y terms. Now, she's not playing ... some fans have crossed the line, for her, and she's taking a timeout because of it.

Young Thug allegedly caused his long-time chauffeur to get the crap beaten out of him at a house party, and now the driver's threatening to sue the boss.

Derrick Thrasher says he worked as a personal driver for Young Thug over the past 7-8 years. He claims YT invited him to a party in L.A. back in May, where he got into an argument with another rapper named Lil Duke.

Now, according to Thrasher's lawyers ... the driver took the high road, and left the party to avoid a brawl. However, Thrasher says duty called -- Young Thug needed a ride home, so the driver had to go back to the party ... and that's when he claims he was viciously assaulted and beaten.

In the letter, sent to Young Thug, Thrasher's attorneys -- Paul M. Aloise Jr. and Ryan P. Molaghan -- say their client was held down, punched, kicked and had a liquor bottle smashed over his head. He claims he ended up needing surgery.

The driver is now threatening a lawsuit against Young Thug and Lil Duke's record label, 300 Entertainment, if they can't agree on a settlement.

President Trump is in sunny California to raise some much-needed cash as he falls behind in the polls and in the money dept ... thus the trek to raise cash.

DT made his way to a private fundraiser in Newport Beach Sunday, rolling up to tech billionaire Palmer Luckey's home in his motorcade to bank on some generous donations ... with tickets for the event reportedly running between $2,800 to $150k.

The Beach Boys are providing entertainment for the shindig -- but not the OG band, it's just Mike Love and the touring group ... Brian Wilson and Al Jardine have disavowed the event. They say they hadn't even heard Mike was planning the gig until reading about it in the paper.

Sure enough, ML was spotted out there out as well ... looking groovy and ready to rock, sans his bandmates' approval.

Even crazier ... the sheer amount of fanboying Trump and co. spurred when they arrived. Check out how the guy who filmed this reacted when he spots POTUS in the backseat, if only for a second -- a complete starstruck freak-out. He claims DT waived at him.

President Trump became part of the church-going crowd this weekend -- and his presence moved a pastor to predict he'd get a 2nd win ... and Trump returned the favor by telling the pastors they were rough around the edges.

DT attended a service Sunday at the International Church of Las Vegas ... with Pastors Paul and Denise Goulet officiated. It was quite the sight -- Trump stood there awkwardly with his palms out, flanked by Hope Hicks and Kayleigh McEnany ... nobody wearing masks.

Right up Donald's alley, no doubt, but it's what Pastor Denise ranted and raved about that actually stole the show ... she says she got a sign from God at 4:30 this morning ... that Trump's getting another 4 years, but she had a funny and confusing way of explaining it.

First, she said his "second win" would come in the form of a victory at the polls; next, she said he'd get another "second win" with a fresh shot of energy ... like a runner near the finish line and who's out of breath, but still manages to power through to the end.

Finally, Pastor Denise said he'd get a second "wind," which she likened to the Holy Spirit. We believe she has a few of those "second win(d)s" mixed up, but whatever ... Trump was loving it all the same. Ironically, Trump has proven of late that he can, indeed, get pretty winded.

Anyway, the couple eventually invited to him to the stage to bless him -- which was just as awkward as their sermon from afar -- and eventually handed him the mic to share some words, and that's when he told the pastoral duo they were rough around the edges.

President Donald Trump gleefully told a crowd at a Michigan rally Saturday night ... it puts a smile on his face to see police push around protesters.

Trump told his cheering supporters there is "something very beautiful ... watching everybody get pushed around," referring to the way the National Guard responded to protesters in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd.

Trump gloated his comments were not "politically correct" but then dog-whistled to the crowd ... "You people get it; you get it probably better than I do even."

But, Trump wasn't done ... he went after Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was the target of a right-wing kidnapping plot that many think Trump himself inspired with talk of liberating Michigan.

Trump brushed off the plot -- mocking the Governor by saying, "They said she was threatened" -- and groused that Whitmer partially blames him for the terror plot. The crowd loved it, chanting, "Lock her up." Trump seemed pleased.

John Fogerty is outraged President Trump is playing one of his very personal songs at campaign rallies, because the song actually takes aim at people like him.

Fogerty says he's issuing a cease and desist order ... demanding that Trump and co. refrain from playing Creedence Clearwater Revival's massive hit, "Fortunate Son."

Fogerty, who sang the song in both the group and as a solo artist, made it clear it's personal ... "I wrote this song because, as a veteran, I was disgusted that some people were allowed to be excluded from serving our country because they had access to political and financial privilege. I also wrote about wealthy people not playing their fair share of taxes."

John made it clear, he doesn't endorse DT. There have been other attempts to get Trump to stop playing other songs at his rallies, but the law allows it. Still, the artists can voice their displeasure.

As you may know, Trump never served in the military because he got a deferment -- first a student deferment, and then a 1-Y deferment after he was diagnosed with bone spurs. And, he grew up in a house of privilege, something Fogerty sings about. In other words, Donald Trump was a fortunate son.

Quavo appears to wanna be the next Travis Scott or J Balvin ... as far as hamburgers go.

The Migos rapper just posted some pics of himself at a McDonald's -- where he's ordering his go-to favorite meal. By the looks of it, this seems to be a direct plea to the Golden Arches for a potential partnership -- similar to what they've been doing with artists lately.

Quavo's own "meal deal" would include ... a plain double cheeseburger, their new spicy McNuggets, a medium fry and some barbecue sauce. The line McDonald's employees can yell out to prospective Quavo-inspired customers ... "What U Want???" Has a nice ring to it!

He even posted an up-close shot of what the food bundle looks like from his POV -- it ain't exactly as professional and touched-up as J Balvin's sponsorship shoot, or the inaugural Travis meal that kicked this whole trend off for that matter, but hey ... it's a starting concept.

Now, if Quavo is trying to will a McDonald's deal into existence, there's a big problem from what we can see. Dude forgot to tag @McDonalds!!! C'mon, bruh ... that's marketing 101.

A milestone day on QAnon's absurd conspiracy theory-filled calendar is about to be washed away like the BS it is -- because, no ... JFK Jr. is NOT coming back to rally with President Trump.

John F. Kennedy's deceased son -- John F. Kennedy Jr. -- is trending this weekend ... all to point out just how kooky the QAnon crowd is and what they believe. One of their biggest prophecies ... that John Jr. is actually alive, and on Oct. 17, 2020 (to the day) -- he'd be announced as DT's running mate at a rally in Dallas ... replacing Mike Pence.

Two major issues with that ... sadly, JFK Jr. hasn't been with us for years -- if you're unaware, he (along with his wife, Carolyn, and her sister) died in a plane crash in 1999 while he was piloting a private aircraft from New Jersey to Massachusetts, on their way to a Kennedy wedding.

QAnon followers think John faked his death and has been in hiding this whole time. Unclear how or why folks think he'd all of a sudden resurrect now and join, of all people, Donald Trump. Remember, his father was a Democrat ... and so was his son. The guy even gave a keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

Aside from perhaps a few photo-ops the Donald and John posed for together back in the day while living/working in NYC -- there's virtually no connection or affiliation between the two.

More importantly ... there's no Dallas rally planned for Saturday. Trump's actually heading to Janesville, WI -- but he'll be nowhere near the Lone Star State. There appears to have been a Dallas rally around this time last year -- but whoever predicted a repeat screwed up.

President Trump's predicting a red wave on Election Day, but one of his rallies looked like a potential wave of COVID cases when a Georgia politician treated it more like a mosh pit.

Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones crowd-surfed Friday during Trump's rally at Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon. Pre-pandemic we'd say this looks like big fun, especially for a political event -- but that just ain't the reality.

Jones, or anyone else in the crowd for that matter, didn't seem too concerned about potential COVID-19 spread ... lots of folks put their hands on him and no one, in photos at least, was wearing a face covering.

Jones, a Democrat who's endorsed Trump, gave a pep talk to the crowd before diving into it. The President, who won't say when he tested negative for the virus, did not follow suit.

The cougar that almost tore apart a hiker while protecting her cubs has left the building, so to speak ... and because of that, wildlife officials are gonna leave her be.

A rep for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources tells TMZ ... the department has gotten a bunch of messages since Kyle Burgess' scary encounter with the big cat, with many people concerned the animal could still be on the trail near Provo, and pose a danger to the public.

However, we're told the agency got even more calls begging them not to harm the mountain lion -- citizens who argued it hadn't done anything but try to protect its babies.

Welp, the department was able to address both sides.

We're told rangers hit the Slate Canyon trail over the past couple days, trying to spot the cougar anywhere in immediate proximity to the walking path. Fortunately, the UDWR says it did NOT find the cat, and therefore ... suspended its search and deemed the area safe.

That's pretty much what Kyle wanted -- he told us he wished no harm to the "kitty cat," as he felt she was just following her maternal instincts.

The UDWR won't be posting warning signs either -- the agency feels it's common knowledge the cats are in the area. As for how to deal with one ... well, see Kyle's video. Worked out for him!!!

College kids attending Brigham Young University-Idaho might have intentionally contracted the coronavirus in order to sell their plasma containing antibodies ... and they're in big trouble if it's true.

The university has launched an investigation into reports of its students deliberately exposing themselves and others to COVID-19 with the hope of getting it, then getting paid for their antibody-rich plasma.

BYU-Idaho says it's "deeply troubled" by the allegations, adding it "condemns this behavior and is actively seeking evidence of any such conduct among our student body."

Students found to have engaged in this COVID-for-cash scheme will be suspended immediately and could be kicked out of school permanently ... according to the university.

It adds ... "The contraction and spread of COVID-19 is not a light matter. Reckless disregard for health and safety will inevitably lead to additional illness and loss of life in our community."

The school also warns that if coronavirus cases in the county and in Idaho continue to trend upward ... it may be forced to go to full-time remote learning.

Even though he came within a cougar's whisker of death ... the hiker who was stalked by the big cat for more than 6 minutes, says he's got no beef with the animal.

Kyle Burgess is the guy whose voice you heard during that terrifying wild encounter in Utah, and he tells TMZ the whole ordeal was actually his fault ... although unintentionally.

Kyle says he had stumbled upon what he thought was an adult bobcat during the hike on Slate Canyon Trail near Provo, and that's why he pulled out his phone to record.

Of course, as he quickly and scarily learned, it was a cougar cub ... and Kyle says he totally gets why the adult was protecting its young.

"It was doing what it's supposed to do" ... that's how he sees it, and that's why he doesn't want anyone -- wildlife officials or others -- harming the animal.

Crazy as it may sound, Kyle says he's not scared to return to the scene of his brush with danger. Check out his explanation ... it's logical, but we doubt most people would do the same.

Not after getting stalked by such a pissed off kitty.

Somebody sent notorious prisoner Erik Menendez some herb from the outside -- and now, officials are trying to figure out if he was in on it ... TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us ... Menendez was moved into isolation Monday at the R.J. Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego -- where he's currently incarcerated -- after some mail arrived for him ... a package containing a bunch of weed. The area where he's being housed is called the Administrative Segregation Unit.

We're told the package of marijuana was intercepted by prison personnel. Prison officials have launched an investigation ... and we're told one of the things they want to know is whether Erik planned on either distributing the weed or using it as currency, or whether it was just for his personal use.

Our sources say Menendez was siloed away in a separate wing, away from other inmates. Prior to the incident, he could interact with fellow prisoners in the yard, but for now, pending the investigation, he's all by his lonesome.

If prison officials conclude Erik had someone from the outside send him the weed, the matter would be referred to the D.A. for prosecution.