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President Trump's campaign staff reportedly told arena staff members to remove social distancing signs before they opened the doors, and there's video showing folks doing just that.

The story was reported by the Washington Post and Billboard -- with the former citing sources familiar with the situation ... and the latter getting one of the venue's main overseers on record. The VP of ASM Global -- the company that manages the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa -- told the magazine that Trump's campaign had, in fact, given the order.

The VP, Doug Thornton, says the campaign instructed them to stop labeling every other seat with "Do Not Sit Here, Please!" stickers, which the arena staff had already done to nearly every row. The place sits 19,000 -- so, at least 9,500 were presumably used.

There was even video captured and posted by WaPo that shows a few men with badges going around and actually removing those stickers. It's shot from a distance, so it's hard to make out what the stickers say, but it seems pretty clear they were the ones in question.

It's unclear if these guys are Trump staffers or arena staffers. In any case, it's a smoking gun.

This is insane, considering the BOK Center was actually trying to do the right thing and take safety precautions ... only to be thwarted by the man's own team come showtime.

Of course, if you saw the rally live -- not to mention the people lining up to get in before doors opened -- you know it was already a 'rona danger zone. Now, the place ended up being mostly empty inside, especially those upper rows. Still, those that were there did pack in like sardines, and now, we appear to know why -- at least partially, anyway.

Faith Hill is calling on Mississippi lawmakers to change the state flag ... she says the Confederate symbolism sends a terrifying message, and it's time to be removed.

The country singer made her plea to the Mississippi state legislature Thursday night on social media, ahead of Friday's potential vote to change the flag, saying ... "We have to realize that this flag is a direct symbol of terror for our black brothers and sisters."

A Mississippi native, Faith says it's time to change the state flag, which features an image of the Confederate battle flag. She says, "I understand many view the current flag as a symbol of heritage and Southern pride ... it is time for the world to meet the Mississippi of today and not the Mississippi of 1894," when the state legislature first voted on the current flag.

A change could be made as soon as Friday, state lawmakers who want to remove the Confederate imagery say they appear to have enough votes to make the change.

Faith says she wants, "ONE NEW FLAG, one that represents ALL of the citizens of Mississippi."

Stay tuned ...

Rep. Karen Bass is worried Americans will forget about police reform if another major event captures headlines, and she's encouraging the public to keep the pressure on politicians.

The U.S. Congresswoman for California's 37th District joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live," to talk about the police reform bill and the uphill battle to get it through the Republican-controlled Senate.

Bass said she fully expects the bill to get held up in Senate, and fears those delay tactics will kill the momentum created in recent weeks by Americans protesting for and demanding an overhaul of police departments.

The way the Congresswoman sees it ... the public has a very short attention span and if a hurricane or other major event goes down, she's afraid police reform will be knocked off the news cycle.

That's why she's imploring peaceful protests to continue nationwide -- she believes that's the only way lawmakers will act. And, if you're wondering what happens if the protests let up ... Bass says just look at what happened after the L.A. riots in response to the Rodney King verdicts.

Panic! at the Disco frontman Brendon Urie is not having it after one of his songs was played at President Trump's rallies ... and he's telling the campaign to kick rocks.

Brendon went off on the Prez and his campaign after one of his most famous tracks -- the 2018 hit "High Hopes" -- was used at Trump's campaign rally Tuesday in Phoenix. Brendon quickly took to Twitter to unleash on the campaign before lashing out at Trump personally ... labeling him a "monster" who "represents nothing we stand for."

In a follow-up tweet ... Brendon added a link to the nonpartisan org HeadCount, which uses "the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy." The org's mission is to reach young people and music fans and inform them and empower them.

The song was also famously used by Mayor Pete Buttigieg during his run for president. BTW, this isn't the first time Brendon's spoken out against Trump. Back in 2018, Brendon didn't mince words when he told a British magazine Trump is "a f***ing asshole" who is "encroaching on people's rights."

Brendon's just the latest artist to tell Trump's campaign to stop playing their music. Most recently, Tom Petty's family members asked the campaign to stop playing "I Won't Back Down" after it was played at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heaped praise on countless teens who punked Donald Trump and his campaign Saturday night in a big, big way.

Trump and co. had been touting that huge crowds -- 100,000 strong -- would show up for his Tulsa rally, yet he couldn't even fill a 19,000 seat arena ... it was only 2/3 full.

Enter TikTok users and K-pop fans, who started their own campaign, registering for tickets to the Trump rally with obviously no intention of going. This is why, in part, the Trump campaign bragged 1 million people had registered.

AOC was beside herself, saying ... "you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID. Shout out to Zoomers. Y’all make me so proud."

It makes no sense, but it's very clear a number of Donald Trump supporters who will attend Saturday night's Tulsa campaign rally have unbridled contempt for masks that help prevent the spread of coronavirus, because this dude mocked the masks with a diaper to block what he claims are COVID-19 farts.

Brian Clothier is wearing an adult diaper covering his pants with the inscription, 'Scientists say [farts] spread the virus. I COVID my ass to stop the spread.'"

First things first ... there have been a few tabloid stories suggesting the virus can be spread by farting, but doctors and scientists are poo-pooing it. The CDC has said there's no evidence of such a spread.

Even if it were true, why the contempt for masks? It's interesting ... no one from Trump on down has ever said masks are ineffective. Trump's own task force has recommended masks when people go out in public. Trump is clearly politicizing masks -- making them look like a sign of weakness, which is insane -- but why are his followers buying into a fiction that will get them sick?

Predictions based on models suggest anywhere between 800 and 1,000 people who attend the rally will probably contract the virus. And, then those people go home and infect others ... some of who could well die.

The fact that people at the rally are showing a hostility toward doctors and scientists who have offered a way to keep them and their loved ones healthy is the most baffling development since the hoarding of toilet paper.

Rep. Al Green says there are more reasons than ever for all Americans to celebrate Juneteenth, and a national holiday is just the start of what D.C. can do to honor the spirit of the day.

The Congressman from Texas gave us a brief history lesson on June 19 -- which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. -- and explained why the Black Lives Matter movement is making it more special this year.

Green's all for making Juneteenth a national holiday -- it already is in Texas -- but he has his sights set on a bigger mission ... creating a Department of Reconciliation.

The congressman says despite the atrocities in our nation's history, we've never reconciled them. He says it will take a new federal agency -- working directly with the Prez -- to make it happen. Green believes it's crucial if we're serious about stamping out racism and discrimination.

Green points to Germany as a template for doing this and makes a strong case for why Confederate statues gotta go too.

The final public hearing for Cincinnati's 2021 budget turned into total chaos after a resident tried to make a case for directing more funding toward police.

The wild scene played out Thursday evening at the Duke Energy Center, where a Cincy resident sparked boos from the crowd by getting on the mic and laying out reasons to increase law enforcement's budget.

He was almost immediately drowned out by a chorus of boos, and city council member David Mann announced he was ending the hearing 5 hours early, which only seemed to pour lighter fluid on an already heated situation.

After the abrupt end to the public forum, dozens of folks charged the stage in protest. Council members tried to resume the hearing, but Mann beelined out of the room and, ironically, police were called in to restore order.

President Trump is down to amend the Constitution so he can stay in office as long as he wants, or at least that's what he told China's Prez ... according to Trump's former national security advisor.

John Bolton's making the bombshell claim about Trump and Xi Jinping's December 2018 meeting in Buenos Aires. According to excerpts leaked by the Wall Street Journal ... Xi told Trump he wanted to work with him for 6 more years. Bolton claims Trump replied, "that people were saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for him."

Bolton also alleges Xi said America has too many elections because he wanted to keep dealing with Trump.

Bolton's book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir" ... also claims the Trump-Xi love affair continued in June 2019 during the Group of 20 Summit in Japan ... where Trump asked Xi to help him win the 2020 election by purchasing more soybeans and wheat from American farmers.

Bolton claims he wants to print Trump's exact words ... but the government won't allow it.

Another allegation in the book is that Trump said he was willing to halt criminal investigations as favors to dictators he liked. Clearly, Bolton's claims are akin to those that led to Trump's impeachment -- for allegedly pressuring the Ukrainian prez to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for military aid.

The Supreme Court just handed a massive win for the LGBTQ+ community ... after ruling federal law protects gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination.

The Justices announced the landmark ruling Monday morning, and it's really significant. The court ruled the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- which prohibits discrimination, among other things, based on race, sex, national origin -- also applies to sexual orientation and gender discrimination.

What's more ... the vote was 6-3, and Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, wrote the majority opinion.

Gorsuch wrote ... "Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear. An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."

Translation -- by prohibiting sex discrimination, the law also covers sexual orientation.

The Supreme Court combined 2 cases ... a man in Clayton County, GA who claimed he was fired as a social worker after he became more open about being gay, and a man fired as a skydiving instructor.

The transgender case involved Aimee Stephens, who was fired after telling the owners at the funeral home she worked at about her gender transition. She died in May.

The Trump administration sided with employers, despite the fact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided in 2015 gay and transgender individuals were federally protected. This has been a hot-button issue for years because many lower courts have held that sexual orientation discrimination and gender identity discrimination are not included in the protections under the Civil Rights Act.

Now, the justices have ruled that these types of discrimination ARE sex discrimination, so gay and transgender people are protected.

Just last week the Trump administration announced it would erase protections for transgender patients seeking medical care, by narrowing the legal definition of sex discrimination so as not to include transgender people -- a big departure from the Obama administration. Unclear at this point if the SCOTUS ruling would torpedo Trump's effort.

Rep. Eric Swalwell says District Attorneys across the country should not prosecute cops they normally work with on cases -- there are just too many conflicts of interest, perceived and real.

The Congressman from CA joined us Friday on "TMZ Live" to talk about the police reform bill Democrats are proposing, and he said the challenges of prosecuting has to be addressed. Swalwell, a former prosecutor himself, says D.A.s and cops are partners who develop bonds over time.

As you know ... the D.A.s in nearly every major city are the ones tasked with investigating officer-involved shootings and police brutality incidents ... like we've seen in Minneapolis, Atlanta and Buffalo.

Swalwell's thought about this problem, and you have to hear his solution. He laid it out for us ... describing a system that would greatly reduce, if not eliminate, all conflict of interests when putting bad cops on trial.

Eric thinks the tide is turning after George Floyd's death, and believes it's time for the country to make major changes and reforms that could go a long way toward ensuring justice for all.

Donald Trump's return to campaign rallies is already controversial for the date and location, and now his supporters have to promise not to sue him if they get COVID-19 while attending.

Here's the deal ... the President's 2020 reelection campaign just announced details behind his highly-controversial move to host a rally next Friday in Tulsa -- and it includes a disclaimer: By registering to attend you are automatically agreeing NOT to sue if you contract the coronavirus. Always read the fine print.

The rally is going down June 19 at the BOK Center ... an arena that holds more than 19,000 people. Not the best idea in the middle of the pandemic -- as cases and hospitalizations are spiking in many places, including Oklahoma.

The Trump campaign website has a legal notice for anyone thinking about registering to attend, and it reads ... "By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present."

The notice continues ... "By attending the Rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury."

Trump's rally was already under heavy criticism for the fact it's being held on Juneteenth -- the holiday commemorating the end of slavery -- Tulsa was the site of a 1921 massacre of America's wealthiest Black community.

White mobs killed an estimated 300 people that day -- which is why Trump critics have called his rally an absolute "slap in the face" to Black America.

Ed Gordon's all for reparations, and thinks any reasonable person who acknowledges America's history of racial injustice toward black people should be too ... so he's calling on Joe Biden to take a stance.

The journalist, author of "Conversations in Black: On Power, Politics, and Leadership" and BET staple hosted a virtual NAACP town hall with the presidential candidate Wednesday night, and when asked about reparations ... Joe seemed open to the idea but had some stipulations.

Ed joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live" to share his take on the issue of reparations, and also told us whether Biden's missing the mark.

The Presidential hopeful revealed he wanted Native Americans to be part of any reparations program, but Ed told us why he doesn't think that's necessary.

He says the reality is black people have received unfair treatment since the days of slavery up to the present ... and it's way past due to stop denying it.

Not only that, but he believes the onus of rectifying the centuries or racism simply can't fall on the oppressed -- white people need to work on it too.