this is "nightline." tonight, the road to 2020 for president trump. tackling low turnout. a deadly pandemic. and civil unrest. now, how a former top adviser threatens to shake up the campaign trail. >> how will history remember donald trump? >> i hope it will remember him as a one-term president. plus, breaking down the state of the race to the white house. from covid-19 to political troubles. will it be a second term or a with juju chang. iououri thanks for joining us. john bolton complicating his

search for a second term. amid a pandemic and a racial reckoning in america. does a disappointing rally turn out in tulsa threaten his run for re-election? >> we begin. oklahoma, thank you. thank you to vice president mike pence. we begin. we begin our campaign. >> president trump back on the campaign trail for the first time since the pandemic. >> i said before you today to declare the silent majority is stronger than ever before. >> kick starting his bid for re-election, but it is clear this is not 2016. >> he claimed a million people asked for tickets, the crowd was modest. >> noticeably empty seats in the arena he promised would be packed. >> is this a moment where the

audience is over it. they want a new show. >> with less than 150 days until election day a look at what may be the road ahead for the president playing out against a backdrop of a new surge in coronavirus cases. >> more than 120,000 american lives now. >> civil unrest over racial injustice across the national and the commander in chief coming under attack from his own former national security advisor. >> are you saying that all decisions that the president made were driven by re-election? >> i didn't see anything where that wasn't the major factor. >> the event in oklahoma is unbelievable. the crowds were unbelievable. they haven't seen anything like it. >> on the south lawn spirits were high as the president departed for oklahoma. a state he won by 36 percentage points. they boasted they had a million

people registered for the rally. but hours before six members of the campaigns advance team tested positive for covid-19 drawing criticism from the beginning. a day originally scheduled for juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery. trump stood strong tweeting the far left fake news media which had no covid problem with the rioters and looters destroying democrat-run cities is trying to covid sheamus -- shame us on our big rally and it won't work. >> he doesn't know any other strategy than holding large gatherings of people telling him he is great. >> they crowded into the blk center and center camped out overnight. my colleague rachel scott was on the ground. >> reporter: tell me about the decision you made to travel in.

>> made a quick decision once i heard he had a rally i'm in. >> reporter: temperatures checked and masks offered at the door but optional to wear. >> i won't wear a mask. >> i have a mask i do not plan to wear it. i am not concerned about it at all. >> this family travelled for alabama. >> we want to continue to build our country and bring back our economy and have a future for our kids here. >> as a family do you plan to wear masks? >> no. we are just going to go in. >> the crowd far smaller than anticipated, fewer than 6,200 people showed up filling less than a third of the arena which seats 19,000. leaving the campaign to abandon plans for trump and pence to speak to an overflow area outside. but inside, the president seemingly in his element. >> five months from now we are

go to defeat sleepy j >> covering a wide range of topics and downplaying the risk of covid-19 which killed more than 120,000 americans to date. >> testing is a double edged sword. when you do testing to that extent you are go to find more people and find more cases. so i said to my people slow the testing down please. >> his team later putting out a statement that he was just joking and then seemed to mock the virus with this racialally offensive comment. >> if you heard the reports. it's covid. by the way it is a disease without question has more names than any disease in history. i can name kung flu. i can name 19 different versions of names. >> he spent 14 minutes setting the record straight on that west

point graduation where some said the president looked shaky. >> i would have been better off if i fell and slid down the damn ramp, right. >> in a city that suffered the most horrific racial violence in modern american history, the 1921 tulsa massacre, there was no mention of racial tensions. the president failed to address juneteenth or the police killing of george floyd. instead he defended confederate monuments. >> the unhinged left wing mob is trying to vandalize our history and desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments. >> meanwhile outside, protests. >> what we are doing today is a continuation of what happened. we are triggered right now. >> despite tulsa's mayor issuing a civil emergency and oklahoma's governor calling in the national guard the protests remained

relatively peaceful. that night trump returned to the white house. >> he looked deflated coming off of the chopper. he had the maga hat crumpled up in his hands. and he looked down. his tie was loosened. it was noted that this was a president that kind of usually strides into the white house, trudging almost. >> the next day the sunday morning political talk shows weighing in. >> president trump struggles to get the country and his campaign back on track. >> a lot of empty seats, a rarity for a trump rally. >> the biden seizing the moment, addressing trump's coronavirus remarks tweeting i can't believe i have to say this but we should be speeding up testing, not slowing it down. >> i would say the president's weekend wasn't what he expected or wanted. it was a combination of things and they ended up with less than 7,000 people and empty chairs. the other part of it is the john

bolton roll out of his book undercuts him at so many levels. >> the fall out from bolton's first broadcast interview telling my colleague that the president should not be reelected. >> how do you think history will remember donald trump? >> i hope it will remember him as a one-term president that did not plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral we can't recoil from. we can get over one term. two terms i am more troubled about. >> in the book "the room where it happened" out tomorrow bolton describes trump as irrational and foolish saying he is focussed on his re-election and putting his personal interests ahead of the country. >> a lot of people complain he has a short attention span but when it comes to the re-election it is infinite. >> bolton calling the president

susceptible to flattery. >> putin thinks he can play him like a fiddle. >> that he is stunningly uninformed and unwilling to learn. >> when you are dealing with someone that asks questions like that it is very hard to know how to proceed. >> in the book bolton accuses trump of obstruction of justice as a way of life. trump was impeached for withholding security aid from ukraine to force investigations into the bidens, something bolton now said that he heard firsthand. >> the "new york times" reported on the august conversation and the president denied it tweeting i never told john bolton the aid to ukraine was tied to the investigations of democrats including the bidens. is the president lying? >> yes and it is not the first time. >> bolton was widely criticized

for not testifying in front of congress. you can certainly understand why your critics say why didn't he come forward before and why is he making a profit now. >> it has nothing to do with making a profit and everything to do with making sure that the constitutional responsibilities that are accorded to different branches of government are carried out the right way. >> this morning trump tweeting insults. i gave john bolton who is incapable of being senate confirmed a chance. i always like hearing different points of view. he turned out to be grossly incompetent and a liar. see judges opinion, classified information. the judge rejected an attempt to block the publication of the book. but bolton may face civil and criminal penalties, a claim that

bolton disputes. today damage control from the president's rally in tulsa. >> the president was very pleased with the rally. >> so far the president remained silent on crowd size. >> we almost never hear from donald trump when bad news about his performance or administration. he is a good news guy. a salesman. >> the white house defending the racialally insensitive term by saying what trump was trying to say. >> the president does not think it is offensive to note that the virus came from china. >> the trump campaign confirming two additional staffers at the rally tested positive for covid. tomorrow the president is set to take the stage this time in the border city of yuma, arizona, one of 12 states to hit record highs of covid cases this weekend. >> team trump knows how to doral

-- do rallies. they have to re-invent what trumpian politics look like and we will see if he can draw a crowd in arizona. >> team trump stick to their old playbook, hoping that it will lead to a win in november. and coming up what empty seats and stunning allegations may tell us about the future of the trump administration. trump administration. it's slipp. nooooo... noooo... nooooo... yeeeesss... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty picks up messes quicker and each sheet is 2x more absorbent, so you can use less. hey look, i got it. bounty, the quicker picker upper.

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tonight, a look at two candidates in the midst of a highly unconventional campaign. hoping to win hearts and minds of american voters. earlier today, i spoke to vyette simpson and sarah fagan. the president's tulsa rally was billed as a sold-out affair with 1 million registered. but in reality, there were a lot of empty seats. should he be worried? >> well, i think it was a

combination of things. certainly covid played into it. ultimately it won't have any bearing in the final outcome of an election, how big someone's crowd is rarely the determining factor in the outcome of the election. >> yet we know the president cares very much about crowd size. the president spoke for two hours and made no reference to george floyd and no mention of juneteenth. what do you think it says to the american public during the devisive times? >> i think president trump knows who he is speaking to. the crowd wasn't a george floyd race relations positive, black-white community crowd. when you think about sheila buck who was arrested outside the protest with her i can't breathe t-shirt, it was clear those opinions were not welcomed. >> you served in the george w. bush administration along with john bolton. in the interview with bolton he said president trump is not a true conservative and that he is not fit for the presidency and

his only guiding principle is to get reelected. do you think conservatives are listened? >> perhaps members of the national security establishment are listening to that. i had a good experience working with him, but i wonder why he took the job. he was purported to have been critical of trump before trump's election and even after the election. i think it was a damning account of president trump, but he left with an ax to grind and it certainly shows in the way he presented himself after the service. >> i am curious, john bolton said president trump told him he was holding up aid to ukraine in exchange for an investigation into the bidens and said the impeachment inquiry should have been broader because obstruction of justice is a way of life for donald trump. does it change your view at all of the impeachment inquiry? >> it doesn't.

the president has the right to talk to a leader of another country and have a conversation freely. it is not like i think everything he said is wrong or true, i think neither is the case. i think when you serve a president as a senior member of the team, you don't agree with every decision. it was clear that john bolton was taking notes and lots of them for purposes of writing the book and making him more famous and more wealthy. i disagree with the approach. >> still, in your mind as a conservative you continue to support president trump? >> i think donald trump has done some very good things around the globe but there are stylistic things i don't care for. >> the president is trailing behind biden in some key swing states. if you were advising joe biden's campaign what would you say to him? >> i would say he needs to focus building an actual campaign and part of the challenge is that it is being fought from the

basement on and what does it look like to engage voters in that space. what is missing is the strategy and overwhelming turnout. we will be met with a lot of opposition by republicans with voter suppression. we need to see biden building out a voter engagement protocol, a way to really engage the voters and not just tracking polls. >> it's ladies night tonight, thank you to you both. >> thank you juju. >> up next from the great white way to film, the three-day feat to bring the magic of hamilton online. magic of "hamilton" online. [cymbals clanging] [knocking]

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most. late night on abc. ♪ and finally tonight going back to the room where it happened. hamilton, the monster broadway hit and sold-out musical finding a new audience online, the masterpiece transformed into a movie. the filming process taking three days to complete. the magic, all the same.

breathtaking. ♪ alexander hamilton ♪ the hamilton movie will be released on july 3rd on disney plus. thanks for staying up with us. good night america. you right back here tomorrow at the same time. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. ♪ ♪ jimmy kimmel live >> this is ridiculous. >> hola. i'm jimmy kimmel.

happy most boring cinco de mayo to you. happy cinco de mayo, guillermo. >> happy cinco de mayo to everybody! >> what do you have planned today? >> i'm going to drink tequila and eat tacos like almost every night. >> it's like if there was a pinata stuffed inside another pinata today. be careful, we don't want to lose you. remember a few years ago, the president posted a stupid picture with the message, happy cin cinco de today he posted it again. remember this, happy