good morning. it's monday, march 21st, i'm sam stein. we begin with that historic visit to cuba. it's being called the crowning moment of president obama's ambitious effort to restore ties with the cold war adversary. the president, first lady, their daughters, and the president's mother-in-law touched down in havana just after 6:00 last night. greeted by rain, and top cuban officials. noticeably absent, cuban president raul castro. the two will greet each other today at the palace of the revolution for an official state welcome. we're told they'll discuss trade and political reform and that president obama will not meet with fidel castro. after touching down the president's first stop was to the recently reopened u.s. embassy, where he thanked the

staff for their service. >> young american children, young cuban children, by the time they're adults, our hope is that they think it's natural that a u.s. president should be visiting cuba. they think it's natural that the two peoples are working to the. their future is what we work for so hard, and i'm so grateful to all of you for making it happen. thank you very much. thank you. >> the first family went on a walking tour around old havana in what was clearly pouring rain. they visited the historic havana cathedral and later had dinner at the privately owned san cristobal restaurant, a symbol of the communist nation's growing private sector. the trip was not without controversy on either side of the caribbean. from what it means to be a cuban dissident to the president's reception by the cuban government. >> it's very chic, it's very chichi for leftists to celebrate

vicious communist dictators. my father fought in the cuban revolution. my father was imprisoned and tortured as a teenager by batista. and my aunt was imprisoned and tortured by castro's goons. now when president obama is in cuba, you know who he's not going to meet? he's not going to meet the dissidents who were being tortured right now by raul and fidel castro. who are being silenced for daring to stand up. he's not going to meet the ladies in white. and so, when president obama is there with hollywood celebrities and rock musicians, drinking mojitos at the embassy, the political prisoners who are languishing are left behind by this president. >> president obama flew the 747 over to cuba today, and i don't know if you heard this, it just came out an hour ago, he landed in cuba, and raul castro, or

fidel castro, but raul castro, who's the head of cuba, wasn't there to greet him. folks, what are we doing? what are we doing? what are we doing? can you imagine if i were in that position and i landed and nobody was there? they would say, donald trump must be incompetent to allow a thing like this to happen. the head of cuba, who was there for the pope, and he was there for other dignitaries that come in, but he wasn't there for the president of the united states. i mean, we are amateur hour, folks. amateur hour. and honestly, obama should have turned the plane around and left. no, he should have. he should have turned it around. he should have said bye-bye. >> we'll have much more coverage on the president's trip to cuba when chris jansing joins us live from havana on "morning joe." now, it was also an unsettling weekend on the campaign trail.

donald trump faced intense protests, including protesters in arizona blocking off the highway to one of his rallies. cabling themselves to cars, and chanting shut it down. but, the trump campaign's actions at the highest levels also came under scrutiny this weekend. nbc news' gabe gutierrez has this report. >> reporter: this weekend, the anger boiled over. >> are you pushing me? >> reporter: in tucson, a protester in a white hood escorted out by police. another one, behind him, repeatedly punched and kicked by men in the crowd. that protester, brian sanders, spoke with nbc's jacob rascon. >> this political movement has gotten to the point where you may get beat to death inside of a rally. i just got my [ bleep ] kicked. >> reporter: but it's this video that's raising even more questions. trump's campaign manager, corey lewandowski appears to grab the collar of another protester who's yanked away by a member of trump's private security. trump strongly defending him. >> security at the arena, the police were a little bit lax.

and he had signs, they had signs up in that area that were horrendous. i will give him credit. >> reporter: last week a reporter from the conservative website breitbart filed a police complaint accusing lewandowski of assault. but he's not been charged. the longtime gop operative once took a break from politics to work as a new hampshire state police officer. >> it's very unusual. unprecedented for a campaign manager to be out in the crowd, being involved in security. >> trump had more to say yesterday, condemning his media coverage. >> we don't condone violence. but why aren't they showing the klan outfit walking up the stairs? why aren't they showing that? and you had this -- this is a real supporter, this was an african-american man and a family that were there to listen to me speak. they couldn't hear me speak because of the commotion that was being made by a very few people. you know you talk about first amendment rights and freedom of speech. you couldn't hear. and now they're walking these

two people out, the klan outfit is still on the one person. and this man became incensed that somebody would wear a ku klux klan outfit and did some swinging. okay? again, i say it for everybody, especially for the media, we don't condone violence. why didn't they show that? all it showed was this wonderful -- i mean, because i hear he's a very, very fine guy, this wonderful african-american man swinging, swinging, swinging, and nobody knows why he did it. and i think it's very, very unfair. how come a group of people is allowed to use horrible language, hold up horrendous signs, scream at the top of their voice, close roadways, close an entrance to a facility that i rented so it's my facility for the day, i mean, they're not supposed to even be in it, okay? how come we're the bad people all the time?

okay. what about the people that are using horrible profanity, horrible words, and closing up highways? why are they never the bad people? it's an incredible thing. >> now donald trump's unconventional campaign is making some conventional moves today. trump is heading to capitol hill to meet with two dozen influential republicans at a nearby law firm, according to "the washington post." the guest list is mostly unknown, though politico reports that senator tom kind of arkansas will be there along with senator jeff sessions of alabama who endorsed trump last month. robert costa reports that anti-trump super pacs will be staking out the meeting for footage of republicans who attend. watch out if you're going. this as republicans take part in a 100-day dash to halt trump's march to the nomination. good luck with that. and as planning begins on an alternative ticket should they fail. the weekly standard editor bill kristol is circulating a memo suggesting potential third party candidates, including former u.s. senator tom coburn, and

ex-presidential candidate rick perry. coburn, according to "the new york times," has privately considered a bid but says he doesn't expect to be the candidate. meanwhile, perry's former campaign manager says the governor wants the gop to unite around senator ted cruz, whom he has endorsed. and today, nearly all of the remaining presidential candidates are scheduled to speak to the american israeli public affairs committee known as apac. hillary clinton, john kasich, ted cruz, and donald trump will all be in washington today addressing an expected crowd of 18,000. wow. several groups are expected to protest trump's remarks this evening. with a group of rabbis planning a walkout after he is introduced. while others are advocating a less disruptive boycott than the rabbis i guess. despite his typical off-the-cuff style politico reports that trump has quote taken input from a number of very significant jewish influences who have reaffirmed to him the importance of this particular speech. trump has said he would like to broker a deal between the

israelis and palestinians. something he says his speech will address. >> i think making a deal would be an issue of interest. i tell you what, i don't know one jewish person that doesn't want to have a deal. a good deal. a proper deal. but a really good deal. >> define a good deal. >> well, i'll define that tomorrow, because i'll be defining it tomorrow. i'm not going to define it now. i'm going to define it tomorrow. but we would like to see, and everybody would like to see a real deal being made. not a deal that's going to be broken. a real deal being made. something that can be lasting. >> now hillary clinton is scheduled to address the apac conference just before 10:00 a.m. eastern this morning. meanwhile the only presidential candidate not attending the event happens to be the only one who is jewish. john kasich -- no just kidding. bernie sanders. the senator told apac in a letter that his schedule conflicts prevent him from going. instead his campaign says he'll deliver a major foreign policy speech today in utah. ahead of those remarks sanders sent out a flurry of tweets

about the war in iraq, a topic he's repeatedly used to criticize clinton all cycle long. quote, in 2003, i voted against the war in iraq. it was a hard vote to cast when so many were calling for war. quote, unfortunately what i've predicted at the time about the destabilization of the region came true. quote, americans need a president who will think about their future ten, 15, 20 years down the line. someone with judgment. senator sanders had a busy weekend out west, as several states in that region hold votes tomorrow and this weekend. ahead of tomorrow's arizona primary, sanders visited the u.s./mexico border in that state before holding a rally in phoenix attended by over 3,000 people. he then traveled to washington state which caucuses on saturday and turned out more than 7,000 people to an event yesterday in the city of vancouver. not the one in canada. after that he held a massive rally in seattle where he addressed a crowd of more than 10,000. and his day ended in spokane

where he spoke in front of another huge audience. this one between 7,000 and 9,000 people. meanwhile here's what he had to say about his opponent earlier in the day. >> we need real change in this country, and between you and me, i do not believe that real change is going to come from a candidate like secretary clinton, who receives millions of dollars from wall street. who receives -- who has a super pac that receives 15 million bucks from wall street, money from the fossil fuel industry, money from the drug companies. >> clearly not laying off the charges there. now speaking of money, february fund-raising totals have been released by the spains and once again sand erz outraises clinton. in february the sanders campaign reported raising a whopping $43.5 million. compared to just, just, over $30

million for clinton. just $30 million. but the sanders campaign also outspent its opposition. meaning it entered the month of march with less cash on hand than team clinton. over the weekend, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, this is on supreme court now, tried to shut down the idea that merrick garland, president obama's nominee for the supreme court, would be confirmed during a lame duck session. the same time minority leader harry reid expressed doubt that the republican blockade of the nomination would hold up. >> the senate's not doing nothing during this election season. but we're not giving a lifetime appointment to this president on the way out the door to change the supreme court for the next 25 or 30 years. it's not the person. it's the principle. who ought to make this lifetime appointment? it's the next president, not this one. >> i don't know why mcconnell's done this to the senators. he's marching these men and women over a cliff. and i don't think they're going to go. >> well -- >> he said we're not going to meet with him. we're not going to hold

hearings. we're not going to have a vote. but that facade is breaking as we speak. we now have about eight or nine senators who said oh, yeah, i guess we will meet with him. >> seems like they're close to an agreement there. turning abroad, another morning, another missile launch from north korea. just in pyongyang has fired five short-range missiles in to the east sea. by embassy's count that makes 15 different projectiles on four different dates, just since last month the launches are a protest to joint drills between the u.s. and south korea. meanwhile, investigators in belgium continue to question newly captured suspect in the last november's paris terrorist attacks. according to belgium's foreign minister salah abdeslam may have been planning another attack. believed to be the last surviving attacker he was arrested on friday during a raid in brussels after months in hiding. belgian's justice minister said yesterday that abdeslam will make an initial court appearance on wednesday. we're also learning new details about the night of the paris attacks, and the depth of their

preparation. according to "the new york times," which says it has seen a police report, the ten members of the isis team behind the attack never sent a single e-mail or text message to each other, but made heavy use of disposable cell phones. inside the concert hall, the attackers reportedly stole phones from hostages and used them to call police and access the internet. the "times" also reports that witnesses described orange sneakers worn by one of the attackers. those distinctive shoes helped police identify abdel hamed abaaoud the suspected ring leader of the paris attacks. now let's turn to business where apple is expected to make some major product announcements today. cnbc's hadley campbell joins us live from london. hadley, what can we expect in today's unveiling. >> good morning, sam. >> good morning. >> a lot of excitement and speculation surrounding apple's announcement later today and many industry insiders now expect of course that the company is going to unveil a smaller and even cheaper iphone. and that iphone, the iphone se

could have features very similar to the iphone 6. now of course all of this coming just one day ahead of the company's encryption battle. they're due in court over that big encryption battle with the fbi. so a lot of conversation happening now amongst industry experts. wondering if apple's going to address that later today, as well. >> hadley gamble live from london. thank you very much. now still ahead the sweet 16 is all set. we'll have full highlights from a weekend of march madness. plus bill karins is tracking snow. snow in new england. and a super coker on the west coast. the forecast when "way too early" comes right back.

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dorsey, in! >> how about one more to finish the evening. >> no time-outs for the panthers. throws it into the hands of the aggies, lays it in. tie game 71. >> less than a minute to go in double o.t. makes it again and now they're on to the sweet 16 in anaheim. >> ten seconds. switch. jackson. off the glass. august. no! tip. yes! notre dame wins it. >> two to go. trip to the sweet 16. rises up, the shot, it's good! it's good! wisconsin has won it! >> wow. that was some of yesterday's action on the college court to cap a very wild weekend in the ncaa tournament. the acc is proving to be the dominant conference after two rounds. becoming the first-ever to send

six teams to the sweet 16 in the same season. we showed you notre dame's tip-in to beat stephen f. austin and joining the irish are north carolina, duke, syracuse, miami, and top ranked virginia. for now we take a short break from the madness as the sweet 16 tips off on thursday. and as was the case in 2012, all four top seeds are still in the running for the national championship. i happen to pick michigan state to win it all. my brockate sucks. let's get a check on the weather now with nbc meteorologist bill karins. i hope your bracket's better than mine. >> i'm doing okay. i'm all right. i had northern iowa winning that game -- >> they really blew it. >> they did. they were up by ten with 40 seconds left. to do great finishes were friday night, and then last night and of course with our early hours i missed all of it. so thanks for the highlights. the highlight today is the snow getting out of here. even in the boston area later this afternoon, it will be a full melt going on. it will end in the boston area probably about mid to late

morning. already two to three inches of snow on the ground from boston southwards down to the cape and over rhode island. long island has been mostly pretty warm, it's on the grassy surfaces. new york city roads are just wet. philadelphia, d.c., you are done. so this is mostly going to be a storm eastern new england for the morning commute. i know schools are already closed today in boston and all the way on the maine coastline a lot of schools will be closed because this is where we're going to pick up an additional six inches on top of what we already have. here's the additional snow. connecticut you're about done, maybe another inch or two in massachusetts and up in maine you'll get your snow right throughout the daylight hours. it's not just in new england. it's cold everywhere this morning. freeze warnings in louisiana, all the way through alabama, through tennessee, and missouri. these are a lot of areas where you're complaining about the pollen. and now you got temperatures this morning in the 30s. we're not seeing a hard freeze anywhere. so a lot of the plants are doing okay. but oklahoma city is down to 29 this morning. and hopefully this is the coldest we'll be until fall or maybe even early winter later this year. today we're going to warm it up with a nice, warm march sun. 60s in the middle of the country. even new york city gets up to 51

after the snow last night. and then tomorrow, we're almost into the 80s in the middle of the country. even boston will jump up to 50. sam, this is it. hopefully -- this is it. i'm not even going to say hopefully. this is it. >> your classic first full day of spring. just a few inches of snow. >> we need the pictures, right? the tulips with the snow surrounding them. >> i don't think i need those pictures. thanks, bill. all right, still ahead it's not only president obama, the tampa bay rays are also in cuba. called ball park diplomacy. that and more coming up on "way too early." the future belongs to the fast. and to help you accelerate, we've created a new company. one totally focused on what's next for your business. accelerating innovation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise. advisor and team who understand where you come from. we didn't really have anything, you know.

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♪ well i won't be afraid ♪ ♪ no i won't be afraid ♪ ♪ just as long as you stand by me ♪ ♪ come on so donald, donald stand ♪ >> i can't, i can't, i can't. that was donald trump being serenaded after speaking to the west palm beach republican party. some nice moves there as well. you can see dr. ben carson was also in attendance. this campaign. actor scott baio, meanwhile, known for starring roles in the sitcoms charles in charge and happy days endorsed donald trump for president on fox news saturday night. probably worth two or three

percentage points in the polls. baio did not shy away from expressing why he is voting for the outspoken republican presidential front-runner. >> when he speaks, i understand him. he speaks like i speak. he communicates with people very well. we need somebody who relentlessly, relentlessly attack hillary. and it's the only way we're going to win. because this getting above the fray and not getting in the dirt, we're better than that. doesn't work anymore. and i'm sorry, i try to be a classy guy and a good guy but to win elections nowadays the democrats and the liberals attack viciously. >> all right. turning back to the worlds of politics and sports, both will collide tomorrow when the tampa bay rays play the cuban national team. first major league baseball team to play on the island since the orioles in the march of 1999. tampa bay players expressed their excitement over social media. yesterday left fielder cory dickerson posted a photo to instagram with the caption, quote, headed to cuba with the boys. we are excited to have this

opportunity. ryan webb took to twitter adding packed for cuba, excited to represent the u.s. and the rays and share in this experience with cuban fans. president obama is expected to attend tuesday's game. mlb special guests are also expected to include joe torre and derek jeter. now that does it for me and "way too early." coming up on "morning joe," nbc's chris jansing joins us live from havana with what to expect during the first fall day of president obama's historic visit to cuba. plus the latest efforts to stop donald trump after another violent weekend on the campaign trail. and a look at where tomorrow's contests in arizona and utah now stand. "morning joe" just moments away. oh, look... ...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula. ...to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®.

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...another anti-wrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works... ...in one week. with the... fastest retinol formula. ...to visibly reduce wrinkles. neutrogena®. . . . it is wonderful to be here. back in 1928, president coolidge came on a battleship. it took him three days to get here. it only took me three hours. [ laughter ] >> president obama flew the 747