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Mayor Pete Buttigieg was briefly upstaged during CNN's LGBTQ town hall by transgender protesters, but there are no hard feelings -- in fact, he's taking a stand for them.

We got the Democratic Presidential candidate in L.A. Thursday night as he left the theater where the event was held, and he had an interesting perspective about the trans women who were forcibly removed as they shouted, "Black trans women are dying, our lives matter!"

Buttigieg says he understands he wouldn't even be running for Prez without the proud history of protesters in the LGBTQ community.

As for the fact that they chose to rush the stage as he -- the first openly gay candidate for Prez -- was speaking? Pete's not taking it personally. He told us he understands their goal -- shining the brightest spotlight possible on the "epidemic violence against black trans women."

Chris Cuomo became the target of some serious heat after jokingly assuming female pronouns during an LGBTQ town hall event ... and then offering up a quick apology.

Cuomo was one of several CNN personalities to take the stage Thursday with Democratic candidates to discuss issues facing the LGBTQ community. Kamala Harris joined Cuomo on the stage and announced, "My pronouns are she/her/hers."

Cuomo mockingly replied, "Mine too." Harris responded with, "Alright."

The backlash on social media was immediate ... and Cuomo apologized, tweeting, "PLEASE READ: When Sen. Harris said her pronouns were she her and her's, I said mine too. I should not have. I apologize. I am an ally of the LGBTQ community, and I am sorry because I am committed to helping us achieve equality. Thank you for watching our townhall."

Prince's estate is furious with President Trump after he played "Purple Rain" at a rally ... almost exactly a year to the date when Trump's campaign agreed to stop playing the late singer's music.

Trump was in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis Thursday at the Target Center. Before the rally started, "Purple Rain" played throughout the arena on loudspeakers.

The decision to play the famous Prince song pissed off the singer's estate, who in a statement said, "President Trump played Prince’s 'Purple Rain' tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music. The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs."

It was just last October when attorneys for Prince's Estate fired off a letter to Trump's team, demanding they never play a Prince song again. In a letter back to the estate, Trump's campaign agreed to never play Prince again ... but that agreement was broken Thursday.

Kim Kardashian has another presidential notch in her belt, but she brought some backup this time -- her sis, Kourtney Kardashian -- for a tete-a-tete with Armenia's big cheese.

The eldest Kardashians met President Armen Sarkissian Tuesday night ... breaking bread with him, and a small group, at the presidential palace.

Kim was business chic for the meeting -- a stylish suede-looking suit and diamond necklace ... while Kourt went with a black suit and a white blouse. Translation: Classy.

Justin Trudeau's mea culpa over his blackface scandal continues, but this time he's saying sorry face-to-face ... to a much younger audience.

The Canadian Prime Minister was a guest on a Facebook Watch show called "New Mom, Who Dis?" where he was asked questions by a small group of school children ... including a couple uncomfortable questions from black twin girls.

One of the twins first asks Trudeau why he painted his face brown, and he responds by admitting it was the wrong thing to do because it hurt people ... and he's learned that now.

But, then the other twin asks a follow-up -- "But, did you paint your nose and your hands brown?"

Trudeau says "yes" and repeats it was wrong and hurtful, and apologizes to all the kids and people he hurt. He also says he's used this as a teaching moment for his own kids ... urging them to be respectful toward each other and not tease or discriminate.

Bernie Sanders' daughter-in-law is dead just days after she was diagnosed with cancer ... and on the heels of the Senator's heart attack.

Rainé Riggs died Saturday, according to the Lee & Martin Funeral Home in Burgettstown, PA. That was the very same day Sen. Sanders returned to Vermont after suffering a heart attack on the campaign trail last week.

Rainé's obit says she had just been diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer 2 days prior to her death. She had fallen mysteriously ill about 3 weeks earlier.

The blow to Sanders' family comes as he tries to recover from heart surgery. As we reported, 78-year-old Bernie was at a campaign event in Vegas last week when he began experiencing chest pains. He was hospitalized there before heading home to Vermont over the weekend.

Rainé was married to Bernie's son, Levi Sanders, and the couple had 3 children. She and Levi reportedly met back in the day when they were both working at an emergency food shelter in Vermont.

Elizabeth Warren is sticking to her story that she was once fired simply for being pregnant ... never mind a report refuting her account.

The Democratic Presidential candidate and Senator from Massachusetts doubled down Tuesday morning ... adamantly saying she was shown the door at 22 from a teaching job in New Jersey just because she was visibly pregnant. It's a personal story she's told on the campaign trail in her quest to champion women and labor issues.

Warren's comments come on the heels of a report from the right-leaning website, the Washington Free Beacon ... which reported that county records show Warren resigned from her position in 1971 as a speech pathologist just 2 months after the board "unanimously approved" a "provisional certificate" that would extend her teaching contract a second year.

Warren insists that after one year of teaching, the principal told her the job promised to her would go to someone else. But, the Free Beacon, citing county records, reports Warren submitted her resignation after just one year and the board "accepted with regret."

BTW ... back in 2007, Warren explained her departure from teaching during an interview at UC Berkeley. She had said, that after a year of teaching children with disabilities, she'd gotten an "emergency certificate" because she lacked education courses.

Warren added, "I went back to graduate school and took a couple of courses in education and said, 'I don't think this is going to work out for me.'"

Beto O'Rourke believes we have a gun problem in the U.S. -- it's as simple as that -- and deflecting blame onto movies, video games and mental health is part of the crisis.

The presidential hopeful and major proponent for gun control is in L.A. Friday as concern and controversy swirls around the release of "Joker" ... so we asked him about it.

Beto tells TMZ he hasn't seen the film yet to speak on whether he thinks it's dangerous, but he's met with families of victims of the 2012 Aurora, CO mass shooting ... and supports and understands their issues with it.

The Texas politician says we all have a responsibility to address gun violence, but people keep trying to go about it the wrong way ... when the problem is clear as day.

Beto says bluntly ... Americans have too many guns and it's too easy to buy "weapons of war" and use them against one another -- even without a background check.

He says that problem has nothing to do with violent movies or TV shows, or mental healthcare access challenges, because as he points out ... other countries have those too.

AOC was taken aback when a Trump supporter showed up at her town hall meeting, trolling the congresswoman by suggesting the solution to climate change was eating babies.

The woman, who wore a shirt emblazoned with the words, "Save the Planet, Eat the Children," seemed mentally disturbed at first, but as she ranted her message it became apparent she was a climate change denier.

The meeting in Queens, covered by C-SPAN, came to a grinding halt as the woman groused, "Even if we were to bomb Russia, we still have too many people, too much pollution. So we have to get rid of the babies. That's a big problem. Just stopping having babies is not enough. We need to eat the babies."

The woman was escorted out, AOC kept her cool ... and the town hall meeting continued. An extreme right wing group that's endorsed Trump claims the woman is one of their operatives and they planned the whole confrontation with AOC.

AOC later tweeted, "Turns out the woman yelling was a Trump supporter," and then added, "Doesn't rule out potential mental issue."

Donald Trump's video aimed at taking down Joe Biden by using a meme inspired by a Nickelback song has been taken down ... because of a copyright infringement claim.

In case you missed it, in the midst of the President's Twitter rampage Wednesday, he posted a video of Biden claiming he's never talked to his son, Hunter, about his overseas business dealings ... which then transitions into an edit of Nickelback's music video for its 2005 single, "Photograph."

The memeing involves replacing the photo in the music vid with other pics -- in this case, Trump replaced it with a 2014 photo showing Joe and Hunter on a golf course with Ukraine Gas Exec Devon Archer. He captioned the tweet, "LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH" ... which are the opening lyrics from the song.

The video was removed from Twitter early Thursday though, and replaced by a notice saying ... "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."

Soledad O'Brien is so confident President Trump's going to get impeached, she's putting her money where her mouth is ... and our photog's now on the hook!!!

The TV journalist and host was at Reagan National Airport Wednesday when our guy asked what the chances are that the impeachment inquiry will turn into the real deal.

Soledad says the evidence out in the open makes a strong case already, so she thinks it's only going to get worse for POTUS ... but better for those banking on him getting impeached.

In fact, she's now one of those bettors dropping some cash on Trump becoming just the third prez to be impeached -- along with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Bernie Sanders has put his campaign on hold ... this after he underwent emergency heart surgery.

Sanders was at a campaign event on Tuesday in Vegas when he began experiencing chest pains. He was taken either to a doctor's office or a hospital -- although it would seem a hospital is far more likely -- and tests revealed he had a blockage in one of his arteries.

Surgeons inserted 2 stents to clear the blockage. The 78-year-old Senator is resting in the hospital and campaign events over the next few days have been canceled.

Sander's senior adviser, Jeff Weaver, said, "We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates."

Sanders is the oldest of the remaining Democratic candidates ... Joe Biden is 76. BTW ... Donald Trump is 73.

Sanders has been struggling in the polls ... overtaken in a big way by fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Donald Trump is about to follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton ... at least that's the way degenerate gamblers and bookies see the impeachment process playing out.

Okay, impeaching Trump is hardly what Vegas would call a stone-cold lock, but according to oddsmakers at US-Bookies.com ... it's now more likely than not the President is impeached.

The odds of Trump getting impeached are currently 1/2 -- meaning a $100 bet pays $50 -- and the betting line has moved significantly since the whole Ukraine saga was thrust into the national conversation.

Since the whistleblower came out and Nancy Pelosi started the impeachment inquiry, the betting line shifted from even to 1/2. That kinda shift is due to the fact tons of people started betting Trump WILL get impeached.

Oddsmakers tell us the current betting line is the lowest it's been at any point since Trump was sworn in, and up until recently, the bettors felt confident 45 would get a second term.

It's interesting ... polls are trending toward more Americans favoring impeachment than not ... and clearly a lot of them are willing to risk some of their hard-earned money on it.

The leaks coming from the White House are now crossing into the animal kingdom ... because a mouse fell out of a ceiling, sending reporters into a frenzy!!!

The wild scene went down Tuesday morning at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a mouse plunged through the ceiling in the press booth and landed in a journo's lap.

Members of the media were obviously shocked by the rodent's rude entrance, with reporters scurrying out of their seats.

A mouse hunt ensued ... and video shows the furry critter darting behind tables and equipment, eluding capture. One reporter even busted out a broom, but the mouse got away.

By all accounts, the mouse is still on the loose after escaping the office area ... and it was last seen running wild in the White House press briefing room.

Mark Zuckerberg is rallying his Facebook troops for what he believes will be war with Sen. Elizabeth Warren ... IF she makes it to the White House.

Zuck laid out his battle plan during a July meeting with Facebook staffers ... according to The Verge, which obtained this audio. During the chat, Zuckerberg says Warren is out for blood, and wants to break up companies like FB, and ... "If she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge. And, does that still suck for us? Yeah."

The face-off with Warren is over the 2016 election interference ... and it's clear Zuckerberg believes she's not ready to let it go -- even though the Federal Trade Commission already hit FB with a $5 billion fine.

Sen. Warren's already firing back at Zuckerberg, saying she wants to fix the "corrupt system" that allows his company to engage in "illegal anti-competitive practices."

Robert De Niro obviously had A LOT more to say about the possible impeachment of President Trump, going on a CNN morning show and dropping f-bombs from the sky.

The actor was on Brian Stelter's "Reliable Sources" Sunday morning as a special guest, where he was asked about the impeachment inquiry opened against DT this past week ... and where he thinks things will go from here. Similar to our question, of course.

You'll recall ... we asked Bob just Saturday about this issue, and he somewhat surprised us by saying he'd actually rather have Mike Pence in office ... if it meant getting Donnie out.

Welp, RDN expanded on that a little with the CNN host ... making a pretty serious claim that he believes POTUS demonstrates "crazy" behavior, and he seemed to mean it literally. Stelter asked him if he was saying "crazy" in a medical sense, and Bob said possibly.