happen. my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. you know, if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. >> the national outcry growing by the minute. after almost a month it, florida's governor launches a task force. the embattled police chief temporarily steps down. astray von martin's father retraces his son's final steps. >> two more minutes his life would have been spared. 120 seconds his life would have been spared. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix today, the president speaking for the first time today about the fatal shooting of an unarmed 17-year-old, trayvon martin. talking about trayvon's death in deeply personal terms. chris cillizza is managing editor of post politics.com. in our daily fix today, this is so powerful, so strong. the president of the united states. let's hear a little bit more what the president had to say

today. >> sure. >> when i think about this boy, i think about my own kids. i think all of us have to do some soul certainlying to figure out how does something like this happen. and that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened. as well as the specifics of the incident. but my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin. you know, if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. and you know, i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves. >> this is a national conversation about race. we have an african-american president which i guess you could say enriches the conversation because he doesn't just have to empathize.

he understands fully what it is to be the parent of a black teenager. >> yeah. >> and the special burdens that parents and children dhaer we've heard from eugene robinson, we've heard so powerfully from other guests from charles blow, from jonathan capehart. >> yeah, andrea. i think we all expected the president to say something. i don't think it was surprising given the amount of attention this has gotten. and is continuing to get. what he said, though, i thought was to your point quite powerful in moving. i really think the president is at his best and he's not always here but he's at his best when he is talking from personal reflection. the sandra fluke incident is another one where he mentioned malia and sasha. if you go back and read, i did it this morning, the speech he gave at the memorial service

surrounding good-bye's attempted assassination in arizona, back in 2008 to the speech he gave in philadelphia about race and jeremiah wright and how personal that issue was to him, it's when he's at his very best is when he connects best with the american people. and that's all not to suggest that he said this morning had a hint of political calculation to it. i don't think it did. i think it was heartfelt. he meant it. and those are the things that i think really the average person identifies with whether it's a republican or a democratic president. but as you point out, someone in president obama with a unique perspective to bring to a situation like this one, and he brought it. >> you know, and he was, we should give the context. he was announcing his nominee jim kim, the dartmouth president for the head of the world bank and he was asked a question by our own jim viqueira. so he was responding to a question, mike viqueira. this was not a staged white

house event in any context. something else happened today. rick santorum in louisiana was at a firing range. he was shooting pistols at a firing range and a woman in the crowd inaudible to rick santorum yelled pretend it's obama. i want to play that tape. santorum then was asked about it. he had head sets on and did not hear it himself and criticized strongly. let's show you what happened in louisiana today. >> sure. >> pretend it's obama. >> bulls eye. >> so he's trying to play to the audience, the local audience, the gun you know loving audience down there. and a woman shouts that, and you could hear that other people were laughing and incredibly. what rick santorum said afterwards, this is santorum's reaction. i should play that. >> senator, as you were standing

up there shooting a woman in the crowd yelled out pretend it's obama. obviously you were at a range. do you have a comment? >> it's absurd. you know, we're not pretending it's anybody. we're shooting pistols. it's a very horrible and tark remark, and i'm glad i didn't hear it. >> so he said it's a very horrible and terrible remark. and he was out of range and clearly didn't hear it. so he immediately dismissed. you obviously could not hear what he had to say there. but just, it's just another example of the sort of the underside of conversation in this country. >> andrea, let me first say that, blaming rick santorum in any way, shape, or form for this is clearly out of bounds. he had a headset on. you can't be responsible for what people yell at your events particularly when you don't hear what they yell. that said, it is kind of, as a

father of a 3-year-old depressing we are still in a day and age in which not only does someone see fit to say that out loud but then other people laugh at that kind of comment. >> that's what was so shocking about it, indeed. >> take the santorum piece out of it. he has no culpability in this. but the fact that you have people anywhere in this country doing that, i would say about any politician, president obama, anybody else is just kind of depressing where we are as a country. i hate to sound a sad note on a day it's 80 degrees in washington but golly. >> exactly. chrysalis cillizza, see you lat. marc morial is president and ceo of the national urban league. joins me now. >> hi, andrea. >> first of all, trayvon martin. let's talk about what many people would say is a belated decision by the police chief to step aside temporarily. does this respond adequately to the cries for action? >> not fully. not completely. we cannot be satisfied until

criminal charges rrnl brought against mr. zimmerman. mr. zimmerman should have been arrested in the first instance. >> he is still not been arrested. >> i understand that there may have been i'll call it hanky panky around the police report from the time he was arrested and what from the time the first officer showed up and wrote a report to what happened in the police station. so i also think that the actions of the sanford police in connection with this case are a subject that needs to be carefully investigated. i mean, like the president, i'm the father of a son. and. >> how old is your son? >> he'll be 10 in about two weeks. and i shudder when i look at the picture of trayvon martin that any young man, any young man of color, this was a boy, this was a teen, this was an innocent teen minding his own business, could be the subject of this

type of horrendous violence and then at first instance, law enforcement does not do its job and seeks, if you will, to give the shooter a pass. >> have you talked to your son about this? >> i've not had the opportunity to talk to him, but i certainly will. you know, when you have a young child, it's a balance between how much of this. i know what he's going to ask me, he's going to ask me why did it happen. and he's also going to ask because he's sensitive, did he do it because trayvon was black. my son will ask me those questions. i have to be able to answer those questions because this, andrea, is a case about justice. i think people need to continue to focus on the fact that we want justice for trayvon. and justice means criminal charges being brought. >> the president had more to say about this today in answer to that question >> every parent in america

should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this. and that everybody pulls together, federal, state and local to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened. >> you know, i talked to norton bone part yesterday, the city manager. it was only about two hours before the police chief finally death penalty temporarily step aside. and kept pressing on you know, why that hadn't happened yet. a bit of that. >> we need to have information. i've asked for an investigation. i'd like to have that information before making any decision. let's not rush to judgment. i will be looking to see what the police department did, what chief lee did. this is too serious to rush. >> it's been a month. what is the rush to judgment in not having an investigation? >> there is no rush to judgment. anyone can see that this police chief violated the public trust in how he handled this. and therefore, he doesn't seem

to be suited to be police chief in sanford, florida, or anywhere for that matter. but you know, andrea, when you look at this, the other thing that troubles me is also this new spate of shoot first laws. some people call them stand your ground laws. florida has one now some 24 states have one. and i tell you what's caught my interest is that it appears as though these laws have a ghost writer. a common ghost writer. >> you think the nra? >> maybe combined with the american legislative exchange council that together they've promoted these laws have ghost written these laws inside the beltway and pushes them out across the states. as people learn more, they'll find these are bad laws. these are shoot first laws, these are laws which shift the burden. these are laws which can be interpreted to protect criminals and violent acts. so i really believe that as this

evolves, there's going to be more discussion and more attention on these laws. and also, the ghost writers. >> mayor marc morial raising a lot of provocative issues today. thank you very much. we are following all of the latest developments from florida. today, students from more than a dozen miami-dade high schools is takened a walkout. a sign of unity for a community shocked and devastated by this loss. this follows a fas massive protest in sanford, florida, this week. another protest is scheduled for the state capitol monday. most of the frustration and the inaction by sanford police revolves around the stand your ground law that mayor marc morial was just talk about, the statute used to justify zimmerman's freedom. we have a team in place to discuss the controversy. let's begin with ron allen live in sanford, florida. ron, what is the latest there. >> and the debate about this law

and whether there will be any chance or any attempt to roll it back. >> well, andrea, i think what's happening here is that there's still a lot of venting and a lot of emotion and outrage. that gathering last night was really a very powerful moment. there were maybe 25,000 people there according to the mayor. and for context, that's about half the size of the population of sanford, florida. and many of those people were from out of town. brought here by social media, by media generally, by seeing all this. and i think what's really continues to intensify the situation is those audio tapes where people heard what happened or at least heard part of what happened. and they've been able to draw their own conclusions. so many people you talk to here say essentially you know, do you think we're stupid? we heard what happened. we can tell what happened. they at least have some sense of what happened. and for me, this so echoes the rodney king situation back almost more than 20 years ago or so now back in the early 1990s.

yes, there are a lot of differences about it, but the commonality is that people here like then saw what they saw and have been able to draw very strong conclusions about what they think happened. >> it's funny you should mention that. we haven't talked, you and i. i was thinking this morning exactly of the rodney king case. ron, hang there for a moment. i want to bring in pete williams, our justice correspondent. let's talk about the language of the law and you know, as you've been reporting, they are in now i think more than 20 states. is that correct? >> that's right. >> and the language of the law is a person who is not engages in an unlawful activity and attacked in any other blaise where he or she has hey right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right stand his or her grounds including deadly force to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony. which is a different standard, is it not, as you've been

reporting? >> that's right. and usually in self-defense cases you do have a duty to retreat. the law says if you can get out of a situation without using deadly force, you have to. if you can't retreat, that's a different matter. this law says you don't have to retreat. you can stand your ground. that's the beginning of the statute it says if you're someplace you have a legal right to be. two things about this. one is that the sponsors of the law say they didn't intend it to apply to a situation like this where the tapes apparently, and we don't know all the evidence appear to show mr. zimmerman was pursuing trayvon martin. they say that doesn't fit the standard of the law. secondly if we can go back to the graphic that shows the language, the second screen that shows the end of the statute, it says you have the right to the use deadly force to avoid a forcible felony. now, in florida, a forcible felony is crimes against people like rape and so forth but that last phrase, forcible felony.

forcible felony under florida law includes robbery or burglary. some of the critics of this law say it appears to justify deadly force to prevent someone committing a robbery or burglary. they say therefore, it's not a stand your ground, it's a stand someone else's ground law. these are some of the things that florida officials are going to look at to see if the law is, frankly, broader and has some unintended consequences. >> ron allen, can i just ask another question about what's happened with chief lee? because we now understand that the city manager has clarified his status. administrative leave with pay. how is that going to go over with the community? >> i think most people see that as kind of irrelevant. people see that as a token gesture, whether it's administrative leave, whether it's temporary, whatever. unless he is fired and gone, i think people would see instinct in that. but beyond that, people want an arrest. i mean, that's been very clear. the whole police chief matter is

something of a side issue i think for the most part for most people here. just to follow on what i was saying earlier, people parse the law here. they hear self defense. but the reason i think there is so much outrage is because for so many people, what happens just defies common sense. a very basic common sense that someone could shoot a 17-year-old kid with a gun and not even be arrested, brought in for questioning. that's why there's so much anger. >> ron allen, thanks so much for all your reporting down there. pete, for your wisdom. >> you bet. coming up, we'll be talk together sanford mayor, jeff triplett. plus the case against staff sergeant robert bales facing formal charges today. and up next, rick santorum's scorched earth policy. that's the charge. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone

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if we're going to be a little different we may as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with the etch a sketch candidate for the future. >> he endorsed me three years ago when i was running for president. called me a solid conservative. now that he's in the race, it's become all about rick. desperate polls call for desperate. >> some romney supporters are calling this rick santorum's scorched earth strategy suggesting that it would be better to have barack obama than to elect mitt romney. vin webber is a romney supporter, a republican strategist and a former member of congress. i don't know whether the party can ever come together. but the question is whether or not rick santorum is going farther than most second-place finishers go right now. >> first of all, the party is going to come together. one of the misleading things that people have learned about

this race that isn't true is that the conservatives in the party will never get behind romney. that's not true. it is true they supported other candidates in the primary, the most conservative republicans but the polls have always shown that romney was a perfectly acceptable choice and they're getting behind him now and going to be behind him in the fall. the problem is with rick santorum is rick santorum. he doesn't have a rationale for his candidacy to go forward anymore so he's trying to create a false dichotomy between himself and governor romney. it's only in my view hurting rick. >> well, at this point, some are questioning wayne about yourman is a figure fund-raiser for mitt romney. you know him well. we both know him well. he has written there is a keen awareness in the party that's right santorum is playing to hurt romney so that romney loses. meaning loses in the fall. santorum sees himself as the nominee in 2016 and he's playing a 2016 game. that's a tough accusation saying that rick santorum would rather barack obama win than have

romney win because rick santorum sees himself not getting the nomination this time but being the candidate next time around. >> wayne is a smart guy. i don't agree with him that will rick is thinking it through with that great a foresight. i think rick is caught up in his own ego right now engaging in tactics that are minorly harmful to mitt romney but really destructive of rick santorum. he's not going to be a serious candidate in four years, buts will he's conducting himself in a way that is going to leave the republican electorate very angry with him. whatever future he has politically is going down the drain as we speak into what is it about mitt romney, here he has a successful illinois primary, he comes to washington, he gets not a full blessing but a partial blessing from jim demint and the tea party conservatives. he gets the endorsement of you know jeb bush even though it was not on camera and with the

laying on of hands, it was practically by e-mail. >> about as close as we want to get to the establishment this particular year. >> you have the etch a sketch moment. how does that is happen? >> eric furn strom was a great communications director, made a dumb mistake. i'm sure he feels worse about it than anybody. that seems to be about a long weekend blimp and i think it will be gone next week. >> okay. you don't think it's going to be michael dukakis with the helmet, flip-flops. >> i don't think so. romney is well positioned for the fall campaign. the interesting thing about what eric said, the interesting thing to me is mitt romney probably has to do less resetting of his campaign than certainly any of his competitors would because he's been talking primarily about the economic issues which is what the general electorate in the fall wants to be focused on. rick santorum would have to pivot away from social issues and start talking more about the economy. mitt romney doesn't have to change. win webber, thank you very much. >> up next, sanford's mayor jeff

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and that's not a chief lee issue. that's a sanford police department issue. >> the nation and the city of sanford, florida, frustrated with the actions of the city police department. still waiting to find out what steps will be taken concerning george zimmerman. joining me, sanford mayor jeff triplett. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for having me. >> that was bonaparte saying trust has to be rebuilt. how do you rebuild trust in the department between this police department and the people you serve? >> i think officially right now, we've got to get to the bottom of this investigation. we've taken the steps from the city to reach out to the department of justice, the fdle, governor rick scott, the special prosecutor.

i think when all those things come together, we can all sit down as a community and hash out what we need to go, where we need to go from here. it's almost a two-pronged approach for us. what did we do? did we do something wrong? how do we fix that and also getting the justice that is desired in the case. but also on a third point is pulling our community leaders together and sitting down at the table for the first time in a long time and saying what do you want to see? how can we get through this? how do we heal? what's the next step? >> what was your reaction when you heard that george zimmerman had not been arrested? >> as a father, i was shocked. i have the same questions that everybody -- that a lot of people have right now is how could this happen? how could this man not be in jail? it looked pretty cut and dry. then when you get into the investigation and start hearing things and some things about our laws and the stand your ground and you actually shake your head a little bit and scratch your head and you wonder how can this happen, how can this be?

how can this man not be behind bars right now. >> how soon did you know about the whole incident? >> it was approximately a week and a half after the incident. i was actually down in tampa with my boys at a football game when i started receiving phone calls that this was going on. i immediately when i got that, i came back up to town and have been involved ever since. >> who alerted you to all of this? was it the city manager? was it mr. bonaparte or was it citizens? >> i believe it was the city manager was the first call. >> and why did it take so long for people in charge to figure out that a problem had happened and that this needed to be addressed? you know, i interviewed mr mr. bonaparte yesterday and he said at that point, chief lee had not even temporarily stepped aside. he said we have to get to the fakes and take time and make sure we have a thorough investigation. it's been almost a month. >> no, i understand the frustration. i'm just as frustrated as

anybody at the amount of time that this has taken. i think originally it was to do a full and thorough investigation and then as we starred figuring out what was happening from that point, the pressure really came on us to do something. i think that the way it was handled in the media and some of the leaks that were in the department that have been on going in the department and some of the responses from us have been absolutely terrible and have actually ignited some of the issues that we're in right now. and that's a managerial thing. that's a -- that's part of the issue of why i voted for no confidence. i think bill's a decent man. he's a family man. bill lee that is. a family man. i don't think he did anything on purpose. but you know what? we're going to search out, we're identifying both public and private people to come in and groups to come in and take a look at the investigation and take a look at our police department and take a look at our community, the community fairs, the community policing so to speak.

you know, we're looking for an interim police chief right now that will start to regain some of that trust. that's all i can do right now. my hands are tied except doing all that, saying we're an open book. let us know what we've done wrong and need to do better. that's the start of where we start regaining some community trust between our police department and them. >> have you spoken to trayvon martin's parents? >> i have spoken to them. i had the unfortunate -- unfortunately, i sat with them when we released the 911 tapes to them friday night, twobs friday nights ago. it's the most painful thing i've ever had to do in my life. i showed them my grief. i had to step out of the room a couple times. i just keep thinking, the only way it could be better or worst if it was my own son having to sit there. i'm just in disbelief. i don't know how -- i don't know how it could get any worse than that for a parent. >> and finally, the sponsor of

the stand your ground law has said it was not meant to be used to protect someone in a case who was pursuing after being warned not to pursue, pursuing an unarmed kid. and i'm wondering whether you feel that now that this law needs to be readdressed, it should be repealed, rolled back, changed. what do you think? >> i think governor scott said it best when the he put together a task force to review it. i don't think that there's any law out there that is absolutely perfect. and there's people a lot smarter than me that are sitting around a table hopefully right now reviewing that law and the ramifications of that law and they're -- i can imagine that there can be a better way to restructure that. but that's my personal opinion. >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. i know you're dealing with a lot down there and trying to address it at least now. thanks for coming on. we appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. coming up next, formal charges against the army

sergeant in the afghan massacre. and as the pope sets out for mexico and cuba, we are live in havana with a preview of the trip. this is "andrea mitchell reports." battle speech right? may i? capital one is issuing a venture double miles challenge. show us how much you spent last year and we'll give you 2 miles for every dollar spent on your travel reward card. up to 100,000 miles! hawaii, here we come. claim your miles at capitalone.com today! what's in your wallet? can you play games on that? not on the runway. no.

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and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. zyrtec®. love the air. army staff sergeant robert bales is being charged with 17 counts of murder in connection with the deaths of the afghan men, women and children in that village. village near his base. bales is being read the charges today. there's no formal arraignment in the military justice system. ooze at ft. leavenworth prison. his attorney says that the staef sergeant was shocked to hear the accusations against lim. >> he has some memories of what occurred that evening. before the supposed incident. and he has some memories what happened after the alleged incident but he really doesn't have memory for what happened between. >> for more on this we are joined by our team, nbc's john yang at ft. leavenworth and nbc's atia abawi in kabul.

our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. first to you, atia. what is the reaction in afghanistan? because it has been relatively muted we know especially in comparison to the rioting after the koran burnings. what about the families themselves that were involved in this horrendous case? >> hi there, andrea. absolutely right. i think everyone in the world was shocked we didn't see more pro testifies throughout the country. the sad reality about afghanistan is they see civilian casualties almost on a daily basis and have for the last 30 years. but what we have seen from the families of the victims, president hamid karzai in fact invited them to the capital of kabul last week to hear them, to hear them out to hear their tears, their cries and pleas for justice. one man who lost 11 family members asked president karzai to do more, to actually make sure there is justice for the victims that were lost.

many of these afghans still claim that there was more than one u.s. service member that went after the families there. even after u.s. officials showed them surveillance video of just one u.s. service member coming back to base after that massacre. andrea? >> john yang, you spoke to bales' attorney. what more can you tell us about the defense and what he is telling his attorney? >> reporter: well, i tell you, you heard the sound bite you used coming into this. he says he remembers things before and after but not the incident itself. he says the attorney, john henry browne says it's as if you woke up morning, couldn't remember what you had done the night before and everyone starts telling you you had done these awful things. it's interesting, the defense has never denied the accusations. they've talked instead about extenuating circumstances. they've talked about his repeated tours to, his three tours in iraq and then this fourth tour deployment to afghanistan.

of the attorney browne says that bales suffered a head injury that are went untreated in iraq for one reason or another as he puts it. he won't give any more detas about that. that seems to be the defense, a diminished capacity that he had some sort of head injury that caused him to black out during this period. brown says he's defended similar cases of concussive head injury that resemble the stories that bales has been telling him. i think you're going to hear a lot about that in the defense, andrea. >> and jim miklaszewski, what about the fact that he certainly was cognizant enough to ask for an attorney when the incident first happened. and top atia's point that in that vil, they still believe there was more than one soldier involved. there's no indication from the pentagon that that's the case. >> none whatsoever. u.s. military officials are confident that this heinous act was carried out by one

individual soldier. and they believe that they have that soldier in custody. staff sergeant robert bales. it is going to be a little complicated in terms of the prosecution because after all, most of the witnesses are half a world away. the investigators didn't have access to any of the bodies. but they do point out they have plenty of evidence in the terms of shell casings apparently everywhere staff sergeant bales' gun. they do have some forensics and they also have a bloody uniform from staff sergeant bales. and one of their best pieces of evidence may be those six people who were wounded survived the attack and they will be able to testify as to who it was apparently who shot them. >> thanks to jim, to john yang and to atia an been which in kabul. with more, retired army colonel jack jacobs received the congressional medal of honor and an msnbc military analyst.

what about the defense that he had been wounded, that he had had multiple tours? in your experience, the head wound, the possibility of post traumatic stress, is that a defense? i'm not asking you in legal terms but i guess in moral terms against what happened. >> i can ask you in legal terms too because those of us who are my vicinity and spent plenty of time on courts as panelists and also tried and prosecuted cases before the miranda ruling when we first came in the service and when you get to be a higher ranking person, you're a court marshall convening authority, as well. so people of my age have plenty of legal experience in the military. none of this is going to have any weight whatsoever. there are plenty of people who served in combat, something like 2.4 million americans have been in southwest asia in the last ten years. no excuse for just having been in combat. lots of people are more tours

than he, friends who have been killed and wounded. also no excuse. there's an allegation that he was in a concussive vehicle accident, but no real evidence. in any case, that's not an excuse either. i think it's going to be extremely difficult for the defense to argue strenuously that he had diminished capacity unless he's found to be incapable of defending himself by one or more psychiatrists. i think none of the stuff is going to enter into the decision to either try him or what may be the result of the trial afterwards. >> what do you think the effect is on morale with the mission in afghanistan, with all of the troops there? we've got more than 100,000 men and women in afghanistan. and they have to face the consequences of this every day. >> they do. although the place has been relatively quiet particularly in the area where the incident occurred. since the incident occurred. you know, i spent and a lot of

other people spent lots of time at the bottom of the military food chain fighting every day where everything was tactics and none of it was strategy. there's not a lot of attention that's paid to what goes on in other areas, what goes on back home when you're trying to get the mission accomplished. you're working 24 hours a day. you're under the gun and trying to take care of each other all at the same time. there are very few things more important than the immediacy of combat and making sure you're all taken care of and you accomplish your mission. i don't think this has a deleterious effect on morale. what it does do is besmir much is the uniform and that's difficult to deal with particularly among troops working hard to do what they're supposed to do. >> do you think we need to revisit the way we recruit at this time when we need the force and go out and try to recruit this all volunteer army which has been splendid in so many ways? do we have to rethink the

testing before people are deployed? >> there's constantly looking at the testing and see if it produces the kind of people we want. at the beginning of the war, the requirement was large. and still we managed to recruit 100% high school graduates and better. a little bit more difficult now that the war has dropped off the radar screen. ironically, as the size of the force gets smaller, the army itself is going down to 490,000 or fewer because of budget cuts. the irony is, we're going to require fewer people and therefore, fewer qualified people. you're looking at somebody here who believes in universal service. i'm not in favor of the all volunteer army the way it's administered. we have no problem with the high quality of the people we have now and are going to have in the future. >> jack jacobs. i loved seeing you at the opening bell with all of your fellow heros the other day. congratulations on all of your service.

thank you. pope benedict arrives in mexico later today. on monday he'll be traveling to cuba. i'll be there covering the pontiff's meeting with raul and fidel castro. on his plane today, the pope told reporters "communism no longer works in cuba." that is going to be upsetting news to cuba's leaders who are hoping the church's opposition to the u.s. trade embargo will promote cuba's interest in that dispute. mark potter is in havana. what are the cubans saying about the pontiff's visit? >> reporter: hi there, andrea. the preparations are under way. they're setting up the stages working out the security. clearing venues where he will speak. they are expecting large crowds to visit him both in havana and santiago. employers are urnged to let people off. so they are expecting large, large crowds here. this is being described as a

pastoral visit where he will come here to speak on behalf of the cuban church, talk about faith and human dignity. human rights activists are urging him to talk more where political rights and religious freedoms. but the vatican has already said that he will not be meeting with disden disdenies -- discy dents here. 14 years ago, pope john paul ii was here when the world was different and when we had a much different pontiff in terms of personality, andrea. >> and all of that, thank you, mark. i'll be seeing you there. it looks absolutely beautiful in havana today. >> i look forward to that. >> on one of my past visits to cuba, fidel castro took me on a tour of the medical school where they train doctors who then deploy throughout latin america. providing free medical care and these students are all on scholarship. last year the school graduated

1396 doctors including 19 americans training students from 22 different countries all as i say on full scholarship. here's part of my conversation back then with fidel castro, 2001. >> what would you say to the cynics who say cuba would want to send people to different countries to teach communism, to teach politics? >> translator: those doctors who can be very influential, by the way, neither discuss philosophy nor religion or politics. that's the basic principle. that is a golden rule they must follow, every doctor. >> different day, different hairstyles. but anyway, i'll be heading back to havana this weekend. we'll be reporting from there all week on "andrea mitchell reports." do join us. we have a lot going on. everyone in america depends on the postal service.

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in 2010, rick santorum was paid $6,000 to pay to a religious group. joining me now for our politico briefing. this group is controversial because they are messianic. they are proselytizers. what does it say about santorum? >> what santorum critics say about him is that he is religiously insensitive. jews, of course, believe that this particular brand of messianic judaism isn't really judaism at all but an attempt, a subterfuge to be able to convert jews to christianity. santorum has really reached out to jewish voters saying he is perhaps the strongest candidate in the gop field on israel. several folks i talked to say this kind of undercuts that argument. ? ken vogel from politico. my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do.

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governor romney and republican leaders on the most important issues facing this country. and not even romney's etch a sketch can change that. >> chris cillizza is back. who had that worst week in washington? >> thank you, joe biden for that nice segue. it is the romney aide who made the etch a sketch comparison when talking about the candidates' issue positions. i think it will be with us for a while. not least because you can buy them at $4.99 at toys "r" us. the democrats are probably loading up as we speak. >> talk about product placement, thank you very much. and have a great weekend. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." next week we're live in cuba for the pope's visit. join us. a lot of exciting reporting there. and thomas roberts has a look at

what's next. >> president obama making his first public comments about trayvon martin. he called it a tragedy and said if he had a son, he would look like trayvon. plus rick santorum tries to clarify his comments saying people should vote for president obama if mitt romney becomes the republican nominee. and why some people in foreclosure may have another alternative to losing their homes. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible.

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