Dangerous new phase. The World Health Organizations dire warning as coronavirus cases soar in the u. S. , 12 states hitting record highs. Preparations for a possible second wave under way in the white house. Florida closing in on 100,000 cases. New concerns it could be the next epicenter. The surge putting the return of sports at risk. Major League Baseball once again shutting down facilities, and comedian d. L. Hughley recovers from this frightening incident in nashville, collapsing on stage and testing positive for the virus. Investigation under way. A noose found hanging in the garage of nascar driver Bubba Wallace, the leagues sole fulltime black driver who fought to have Confederate Flags banned from saying he will not back down. And the 2020 virtual espys packing a powerful punch. We need a change, and we need it now. One of sports biggest nights kicking off with a call to action for all athletes. Sports give us hope. Sports make us feel. Sports bring us together. Highlighting incredible stories of courage, an emotional tribute to the legendary kobe bryant, the inspiring messages to the competitive class of 2020, and the sensational snacks winning the cant stop watching moment of the year. Good morning, america. Great to have you with us on this monday morning. Great to have george back as well. Good to be back. Thess st night. You may remember thomas snacks lee. Hes a Basketball Team manager who finally got a chance to play, and when he did, he wowed the world. What a moment, and then he won the cant stop watching moment of the year, and said its always a pleasure to be in elite company. It was tough beating simone biles. Good sense of humor as well. There were a lot of powerful moments from the espys and well have so much more from one of the biggest nights in our next half hour. That is coming up, but we begin with those explosive allegations from john bolton. The president S National Security adviser is under fire from all sides as his memoir, the room where it happened, is set for release tomorrow. Hes standing by live for an exclusive interview after this report from mary bruce in washington. Good morning, mary. Reporter good morning, george. The president says this book is made up of lies and fake stories. He is calling john bolton a wacko and a dope who never had a clue but bolton says the president does not want the American People to read it because it is based on the facts. Now he says those facts show trump should be a oneterm president. He was President Trumps longest serving National Security adviser, but now john bolton is warning that trump should not be reelected. How do you think history will remember donald trump . I hope it will remember him as a oneterm president who didnt plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral we cant recall from. We can get over one term. Two terms im more troubled about. Decisions are made in a very scatter shot fashion, especially in the potentially mortal field of National Security policy. This is a danger for the republic. Reporter in an explosive oneonone with abcs martha raddatz, bolton says he will not be voting for trump in november. Im not going to vote for him in november. Certainly not going to vote for joe biden either. Im going to figure out a conservative republican to write in. Reporter in his new book which comes out tomorrow, bolton describes trump as irrational and foolish saying he is singularly focused on his reelection. Trump putting his personal interests ahead of the country. Are you saying that all decisions the president made were driven by reelection . I didnt see anything where that wasnt the major factor. So a lot of people have complained that he has a short Attention Span and doesnt focus. I want to say when it comes to reelection, his Attention Span was infinite. Thre thahen it came to National Security. Reporter bolton says the president is susceptible to flattery a manipulation. Putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. Reporter he says trump is stunningly uninformed and unwilling to learn. You say in the book that trump asked general john kelly if finland was part of russia. He said those things, absolutely. When you are dealing with somebody who asks questions like that, its very hard to know how to proceed. Reporter in his book he accuses trump of obstruction of justice as a way of life. Trump was impeached for one alleged incident of withholding security aid from ukraine to try to force investigations into the bidens, something bolton now says he heard firsthand. The New York Times reported on that august conversation and the president denied it tweeting i never told john bolton that the aid to ukraine was tied to investigations into democrats including the bidens. Is the president lying . Yes, he is, first time either. Reporter bolton was widely criticized for declining to testify in the impeachment process. He says it was politically motivated and too narrowly focused. Now hes talking about other instances of potential obstruction including claiming trump told the president of turkey that he would intervene in the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new York District attorneys investigation of a turkish state run bank. The president said to erdogan at one point, look, those prosecutors in new york are obama people. Wait till i get my people in and then well take care of this. Ive never heard any president say anything like that ever. It did feel like obstruction of justice to me. Reporter and now some democrats say they will investigate any further allegations of wrongdoing raised in this book. Democratic chairman adam schiff who led the impeachment trial says the public needs to know exactly what they have in this president. George . Mary bruce, thanks very much. John bolton joins us now. Mr. Bolton, thank you for joining us this morning. Lets pick up where mary left off. If democrats subpoena you, will you testify . Well, lets see what they decide to do. Lets be clear. The primary way that we rein president s in is not through impeachment. Its through elections, and president ial behavior can be reckless, reprehensible, dangerous, doesnt necessarily make it impeachable. I think one of the mistakes that the democrats made, and they made plenty, is the idea that everything is resolved through the impeachment process, and they mishandled it badly. I called it impeachment malpractice in the book. What they do next obviously is up to them. But you also said that a senator john bolton would probably have voted to convict President Trump. Well, i dont look, i still dont know all the information about ukraine or many of these other things, but my point is that the democrats made a conscious decision at the beginning of the ukraine impeachment effort to push republicans aside. I think there were a lot of republicans in the house that might have been open to a more reasoned nonpartisan effort much like thinking back to watergate days what sam irvin and howard entirely. They made it a partisan fight in the house. That guaranteed it would be a partisan fight in the senate, and they lost. Thats not a very good strategy. Well, the democrats say about you that you your core charge against President Trump is he put his personal interests consistently over the national interest. They say thats exactly what youve done. Nancy pelosi and adam schiff say you were choosing greed and loyalty over patriotism. What i have chosen is philosophy. I have been a conservative republican since i was 15 years old and handed out leaflets and rang doorbells for Barry Goldwater in 1964. Ive been motivated throughout my government experience to try and advance conservative philosophy and i think one of the most important things i learned in watching donald trump up close is he doesnt have any philosophy. He doesnt proceed on that basis or on the basis of a grand strategy or policy. Its all about donald trump and that to me is a lesson for americans as a whole but particularly for conservative republicans, because if trump wins reelection, which is entirely possible, theres no more guardrail based on what the Republican Party may think about him. So people need to understand that, and i hope if they read the book, they can make up their own minds. But youre not going to vote for President Trump . No, thats right. I will write in a conservative republican. I havent decide who yet but thats my let me press you on that because back in 2016, you called the election a binary choice and said basically any vote that is not for donald trump is a vote for Hillary Clinton so isnt any vote by that logic any vote not for joe biden in 2020 a vote for donald trump . Well, you have accurately characterized what i said in 2016. That was my that was my view at the time. No doubt about it. But having watched donald trump for 17 months, i cannot in good conscience vote for him and i think there are a lot of other republicans who feel the same way. This is not a happy election for conservatives in my view. If you write in a conservative isnt that a vote for donald trump effectively . Well, not in maryland where i live. I think the democratic nominee will carry maryland without much trouble, but i want to make it clear. Im not switching to the democratic party. Im still a rockribbed conservative republican and in the discussion that will come after the november election within the Republican Party and it will come whether trump wins or loses, we have to talk about what the posttrump Party Looks Like and i think its important to set the stage for that conversation which is in part what ive tried to do in the book. You were National Security adviser to the president of the united states. You served in three republican administrations and you warned security. What is the biggest fear you have . I served in four republican administrations. The biggest fear i have is that his policymaking is so incoherent, so unfocused, so unstructured, so wrapped around his own personal political fortunes that mistakes are being made that will have grave consequences for the National Security of the united states. Weve seen this play out in a number of areas already in north korea, for example, despite two years of an absolutely futile effort to get Photo Opportunities with kim jongun, the North Koreans within the past couple of weeks have literally blown up the office structures that they built to accommodate south korea and liaison offices so they are right back to ground zero in terms of the diplomatic effort and the North Koreans have had two years, two years to continue to advance their Nuclear Weapons and Ballistic Missile capabilities. That is dangerous. President trump as you know called you a series of names over the last week, wacko, nut job. We showed you some earlier and he explicitly denied one of your explosive allegations that he asked president xi of china for reelection help. He said explicitly, i dont go around saying, oh, help me with my election. Is that true . I stand by what i said in the book. As i noted in the extract that was published in the wall street journal, i didnt use the exact words because of the prepublication review process. But the story is correct. Vanity fair reports an unredacted version of your book quoted President Trump saying to xi, make sure i win. Is that true . Well, im not going to comment on that. Im going to stick with the language that was approved in the prepublication review process, and let me say i dont know where that leak came from. I dont know where the leak to the New York Times about ukraine came from back in january, but whoever leaked any of these materials is no friend of mine. Youve also confirmed the core case, the impeachment case the democrats made against President Trump, that he explicitly tied aid to ukraine to those investigations of his political opponents. You knew that at the time. Did secretary of state pompeo know that at the time . I think it was widely understood. I want to say, all of us who were involved in dealing with National Security aspects of ukraine, i think uniformly, were working to get the assistance delivered. We were running up against a september 30 end of fiscal year deadline and there was real urgency not to lose that assistance because of the bureaucratic rules about budget allocations. And that was the focus. The only person in the white house that im aware of that didnt focus on the National Security implications for ukraine was donald trump. Secretary of state has said you are the liar here. He says, i was in the room too. In a statement he put out, you spread a number of lies, fully spun half truths and outright falsehoods including one story you tell in the book, that you and the secretary of state are in singapore and he shows you his notepad saying the president is full of something i cant repeat on morning television. Look, its true. I think hes responding the same way that President Trump is. They call names, they deny, but theyre not willing to face up to what the real facts are. Look, people have different recollections. Ive been a trial lawyer and seen it many witnesses over time. Ive put 500 pages of what i saw the facts to be out on the table. I think its important that the American People have these facts as they consider what to do in november and as we look at our history and see trump for what i hope history will record it to be, an aberration. A federal judge is allowing you to sell your book but hes also warning you may not get any profits from it, saying you gambled with the National Security of the united states, you have exposed the country to harm and yourself to civil and potentially liability. Whats your response to judge lamberth . We respectfully disagree. There is a story to tell here and well be telling it as the evidence comes out. The president made very clear three or four months ago he wanted to suppress this book. Just think about that. Its on the pretext of National Security information but the president s not worried about foreigners reading this book, hes worried about the American People reading this book. Finally, sir, you say obstruction of justice is a way of life in the trump white house. Is that what weve seen this weekend with the president s firing of the u. S. Attorney here in new york, Geoffrey Berman . You know, obviously ive been out of the government since september. I dont know what the facts are here. I really would rather not speculate on that. John bolton, thanks very much. Your book, the room where it happened, is out tomorrow. Michael. Thank you very much, george. Now to the reaction this morning over President Trumps return to the campaign trail. His rally in tulsa not bringing out the crowd the president s team w terry moran joins us now from washington with the latest. Good morning, terry. Reporter good morning, michael. It was a rocky start for President Trump back on the campaign trail. He bragged there wouldnt be an empty seat in tulsa on saturday night. His first big rally since march 2nd and the campaign had actually built two big venues for two separate speeches, but in the end the president was a bit of a bust in tulsa. The campaign quickly dismantling one venue. That other venue, about onethird full. Tulsas Fire Department saying about 6,200 people showed up afterwards trump was said to be furious. He won oklahoma by 36 so Campaign ManagerBrad Parscales job may be in some trouble but the bottom line here is really this was evidence that perhaps the president s support has taken a hit in recent weeks, and polls certainly show that, but more than anything else, people may be wary in the middle of a pandemic of showing up at a large indoor event where masks were optional and a lot of people in there were maskless. The president in his speech in fact talked about the coronavirus, downplayed it once again and at one point he said, the uncreasing numbers on increased testing saying he told his team slow down the testing. Now, michael, his team says, he was just kidding. Yeah, for sure. Terry, teenagers and online kpop fans are claiming sponbili for thilo ng in egedly the Trump Campaign is denying this. Reporter theres claims they punked trump, that on tiktok fans of kpop registered for tickets. The campaign said, excuse me, that they had a million tickets requested, but in the end really it probably didnt matter. Anybody who shows up at a trump rally gets in. These are not reserved tickets. It may have inflated expectations and once again it may mean something for the Campaign Manager but it was probably just the virus and trumps own support, michael. All right, terry, thank you so much. A lot more coming up this monday morning including the scary moment when comedian d. L. Hughley collapsed on stage, then tested positive for covid as 22 states are seeing a rise in cases. And the investigation under way. A noose found hanging in the garage of nascar driver Bubba Wallace being called a despicable act.