Later, a bombshell interview you will only see here, the president s former lawyer speaking first to nbc news. What Michael Cohen is saying about his former boss behavior behind closed doors. I describe mr. Trump as a cult leader and i was in this cult, the actions that i was performing for my boss were morally wrong. Lester holt joins us live in a minute with that as we start off on this Tuesday Morning in washington. Im Hallie Jackson with Josh Letterman in jupiter, florida, Shannon Pettypiece outside the white house and mike memoli in washington covering the Biden Campaign. Josh, let me start with you, the president spent his weekend here at home, hes ready to get on the road. Sources say hes eager to get out there and do some traveling in the last two months before the election. Reporter thats right, hallie. Two battleground states in one day as we enter the final two month stretch between labor day and the general election. The president will start off with what is being billed as an official visit to jupiter, florida, to this lighthouse just behind me, where he plans to focus on his environmental record. Then the president will be headed up north to winstonsalem, North Carolina, for a campaign rally. He will have there later tonight. The polls in North Carolina have been very tight, just like they have been here in florida. In fact, a quinnipiac poll from just last week showed biden ahead just three points getting into that margin of error territory that campaigns dont like to be in. We know that florida is the land of famously close elections. Likely to be close again this cycle and thats why neither state, Neither Campaign is taking this for granted. Now, President Trump has something of a home state, home territory advantage here in West Palm Beach area, having made this now his official residence. We saw just over the weekend, this flotilla, this protrump boat raid in jupiter, florida. One sign of support for the president here in florida. The Biden Campaign feels like they have an advantage when it comes to talking about the coronavirus, and the problematic pandemic response, which im sure mike will talk about and so we see the Trump Campaign trying to play a little bit of defense here as he comes to the state. So, shannon, to that point, the president and joe biden as josh points out are really facing off now over coronavirus, the biden team does want to make this a central focal point and thats something we watched play out in the last 24 hours, joe biden out with a new ad framing the darkness around it, we expect to see it for the next couple of days, couple of weeks too. Reporter yeah, and the white house essentially saying, all right, if this election is going to be about coronavirus, you want to make it about coronavirus, lets talk about the vaccine. And trying to put the focus there, the president saying, again, yesterday, that a vaccine could be available next month. And a number of Public Health officials and his own administration have said that is very unlikely. Have a listen to how the two candidates frame this conversation about a vaccine yesterday. Were going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what date im talking about. One of the problems is when he said so many things that arent true, and im worried if we do have a really good vaccine, people will be reluctant to take it. If i could get a vaccine tomorrow, i would do it. If it would cost me the election, i would do it. And, of course, hallie, the politics really fits into the Public Health story of this as well. And whether the public is going to have confidence and trust in a vaccine that comes out if it appears it is just being used as a Political Tool to win a reelection. And even as of last month before the president s comments about a vaccine coming out in october, one in three americans said they did not want to take a vaccine if it was made available. And actually democrats were a lot more likely to want to take one than republicans were. So you can see a real partisan divide on this issue and judging by the rhetoric, it looks like it will continue for next couple of months. Mike, talk about that, the Biden Campaign wants to make this central to the conversation from now until november. Reporter yeah, hallie, the pandemic has really torn up the traditional script of this usual labor day to election day sprint. But this week i think were getting a really good example of what i would call a multiplatform divide and conquer strategy from the Biden Campaign. We saw biden yesterday, in the battleground state of pennsylvania. Tomorrow, hes going to be heading to michigan. On friday, hell be in checksville, pennsylvania, and President Trump marking the anniversary of 9 11. Were also seeing the virtual campaigning, dr. Jill biden holding a round table discussion on school reopening, focused on florida where the president is today. Shell be campaigning in person in minnesota. We also see the campaign using their new digital reach to try to reach voters that way and one way theyre doing that is using two of their biggest surrogates. Kamala harris and president obama having a virtual conversation about joe biden. Lets take a listen to that new conversation. So, tell me about joe. What do i need to know what is the thing about the ice cream . He loves ice cream. Tell me about that. Ice cream is big. Pasta with red sauce. But, look, the main thing to know about joe is that joe has never lost his sense of why we do this. Reporter a little fact check there, more context than you asked for, biden partial to dairy queen on the ice cream, chicken parm with a side of spaghetti and red sauce on the dinner side. And the other important part of that conversation with obama and harris, obama saying he and Michelle Obama are also going to do everything they can in these coming weeks to help them win in november. Mike memoli with those hot scoops on the former Vice President , chicken parm preferences, thank you. I want to bring in our next guest now, shane gold milwaukma the cash crunch, the national litt political reporter for the new york times. The president is taking issue, taking exception to your reporting, tweeting his campaign spent a lot of money up front to compensate for the false reporting and fake news apparently about the handling of what he described as obviously he called it the china virus, it is called the coronavirus. Your extensive review of records found they burned through 800 million of the 1. 1 billion they raised since 2019, some of what are described as vanity splurges. The president doesnt like seeing these numbers, clearly, or he wouldnt be tweeting about it. Talk to us about where that money went, in your piece, you lay out look a Million Dollars to tv ads in d. C. Not a district known for being particularly battlegroundy. 11 million on the two super bowl ads too. Tell us what more you found. Yeah, i mean, the top line is that an enormous share of the money he raised went toward raising the money. About 33 cents of every dollar he has spent or every dollar he raised, excuse me, went to raise that money. Fees for his hats that people are buying, fees to fund fundraisers, professionals hes hired, digital acquisition, and the reason that Brad Parscale and the original team said, look, republicans started behind digitally compared to the democrats and they had to pour this money in. The question is now, youre entering the homestretch of the campaign. The whole idea was he could get a head start and not be behind in the money race. He was badly outspent by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 race and that didnt want that to happen again. And now here they are, entering the homestretch as you just heard, and hes looking at the possibility not just of being behind joe biden who raised monster amount of money in august, but having a cash crunch just according to people around his own campaign. What are republicans and allies of the president youre talking to saying about this . Do they feel like it was effective to front load so much of the Campaign Spending . Is there some consternation and concern based on the sources youre talking to . There is consternation and the issue comes down to will he have enough money at the end to prosecute the case he wants. The Campaign Said they had to spend he said this in the tweet, money because of the coronavirus, this spring and summer, they otherwise might not have spent. But, look, thats a small share of the overall spending. Tv ads, about 100 million preconvention this year. Thats a lot of money. And, again, joe biden is outspending him on the airwaves. If you want to know whether they have concerns about the cash situation, look at that theyre spending the last two weeks of august, joe biden dramatically outspent him on the airwaves. One of the thing i find interesting in the piece, one of the many things is the you could call it the domino effect of people throwing other people under the bus on whose fault this is. You talked to the until recently now former Campaign ManagerBrad Parscale who said basically i ran the Campaign Just like i did in 2016, he was working on the digital side at that point. He said no decision was made without the familys approval, which makes you think, okay, hes saying talk to jared, you then went in the next paragraph and talked to Jared Kushner who says no decision was made, we worked in close consultation with the rnc, the Republican National committee, whose fault is this here . Where was the strategic decision gone wrong in the eyes of some of these republicans who were concerned about this . Brad parscale became the campaign manage and outspoken figure. He became a figure on the internet, he became a public figure, right . He put himself in one of the Television Ads from the Campaign Early on. By doing that, he became the magnet for criticism. Hes saying, the buck didnt just stop with him. That the family that Jared Kushner and that trump himself had a lot of say in these decisions and you can see that. We talked about the Million Dollars of Television Ads in the washington, d. C. Market. This is not a swing market. This is not a group of watchers who are going to swing the election. You know who does live in washington, d. C. Is President Trump. He watches a lot of television, and it is clear that people are trying to reach him by running ads including his own campaign. The new Campaign Manager said his job, one of the big ones, is to get the budget under control. Thank you for being on with the new reporting for us, i appreciate it. A lot more to get to this morning including up next, this unprecedented move by some of the Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies in the world, in the race to produce a Coronavirus Vaccine. Well tell you what it is coming up. The overnight rescue of more than a dozen campers trapped by wildfire in the Sierra National forest in california. Were on the front lines. And lester holt joins me with his exclusive interview with President Trumps former attorney Michael Cohen, who declares himself loyal no more. You called trump a racist. 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That was colonel david hall this morning on today describing the overnight rescues in the middle of that increas g increasingly dangerous situation in california an hour after that interview, another 11 evacuees arrived at a National Guard base in fresno. Flames are moving faster than the Fire Fighting crews are able to. Some 28 wildfires are burning through more than 2 million acres. This is a california state record. California is in a state of emergency, most of the west coast is under red flag warnings, extreme fire risks theyre looking at into wednesday. Joining me now from San Bernardino, nbcs Steve Patterson covering the el dorado fire there. It is not like the weather is helping much. This heat wave is still happening. Tell me what youre seeing on the ground. Reporter officials are very worried about weather conditions which continue to be hot and dry and windy and that is expected to last through the week. Now, conditions here have gotten a lot better at least this morning. It is a lot cooler. The winds have died down. This always happens, like a pattern, starts this way and then towards the afternoon hours, those winds start to pick up. This situation here, a lot different from the one youre describing, in central california. That creek fire is a freak, 135,000 acres, officials are not calling it an unmitigated disaster. Here, the el dorado fire, this is southern california, butted up against San Bernardino national forest, officials hope so much has already burned out in the areas around the homes that there simply isnt enough more full to burn that would create a danger area around their homes. We have gotten more protection around some of the neighborhoods here. A lot of it is burning off into the canyons, but that smoke and the fire and all it takes is a good wind gust and you got another bad situation on your hands. As you mentioned, the state just covered. It is a tinder box across the state, covered in red flag warnings. There are are about 22 counties facing blackout warnings and you have the situation where the high winds are really making things dangerous for firefighters, battling two dozen fires across the state of california. Those are just the big fires i should say. As you mentioned, it is already burning so much of california, 2 million acres total. That is a state record, but were just moving into the highest, the heaviest, the worst part of the fire season for all these fires. This is when the santa ana winds start to pick up, and you start seeing really the biggest fires that we have seen in a generation. Thats expected to happen as the months move forward. But really right now, firefighters are have their hands full from all across california as this fire season is just terrible. Hallie . Steve patterson, thank you for that reporting. Stay safe out there. Appreciate it. A potential rollout of the