can donald trump win over the gop establishment? in just hours, the republican frontrunner meets with leaders followed by chaos on the campaign trail. president obama in cuba. the first u.s. president to visit the country in 88 years. and the captured paris terror suspect behind bars claiming more attacks were planned. good morning. welcome to "early start." i'm miguel marquez. >> nice to see you. happy spring.

>> snowy monday more than. >> i'm christine romans. more mayhem in donald trump rallies. the frontrunner's campaign staff vowing to beef up security. trump hopes to put out a few political fires today. he meets with two dozen republican leaders in washington hoping to mend fences with the party establishment and meet with a pro israel group. we get more from chris frates. >> reporter: later today, donald trump has been criticized for not being a friend of israel will give a speech to a pro israel group apac. a number of leaders are expected to protest that speech by walking out. they believe trump is promoting hatred. those expected protests later today come after a wild weekend

that found trump's campaign manager man handled at a rally. he seemed to defend his campaign manager. >> because security at the arena, the police were a little bit lax and they had signs up in the area that were horrendous. i give him credit for having spirit. he wanted to take down the profanity laced signs. >> reporter: earlier this month, a reporter accused corey lewandoski. the reporter has filed a criminal complaint. he denied touching her and denies the charges. this is all cause for the republican chairman reince priebus thinks professionals should deal with protesters, not campaign managers. a man at one of his arizona

rallies sucker punched. miguel, christine. >> thank you, chris. the protester who got sucker punched at the rally is speaking out. the video shows bryan sanders escorted out of the building by security. when things got out of hand. listen to sanders describe what happened. >> i had a sign that said bad for america. it had trump with the confederate flag superimposed on his face. i had that in my hand. i had a peace sign up. the guy grabbed the sign out of my hand and sucker punched me. he got on top of me and hit me a couple more times. this is democracy. people that don't want us to be at the event, they should look deep inside themselves. this is what it brings.

it's the '60s all over again. getting punched in the face is no problem. trump is not going to be in the white house. >> the man seen punching sanders on the video is 32-year-old tom pettaway. donald trump and his two republican rivals making a push for votes before two more big races tomorrow. arizona and utah up for grabs. ted cruz trying to sell this is a two-man race. john kasich stating it will be a contested convention. >> donald is in a difficult position. in a two-man race, he has a hard time breaking 50%. our path forward is to win primaries going forward. amass the delegates. we have a path. >> everybody has to face the fact we're going to an open multiballot convention.

that's where we're headed. the convention is an extension of what we're going through. i have been add a convention contested in 1976. the delegates take everything seriously. they take a look at people's experience and electability. that is fine. everybody needs to take a little chill pill to tell you the truth. >> stay with cnn. ohio governor john kasich will join us in the 8:00 hour. take a chill pill. >> i'm always on the chill pill. the democratic side, bernie sanders and hillary clinton are hitting the trail hard with races tomorrow in utah, arizona and idaho. clinton campaigns in phoenix and sanders making stops in utah and arizona. both candidates battling for every single vote they can get. clinton hoping to seal the deal soon. sanders determined to stay alive. let's get the latest from cnn's

boris sanchez. >> reporter: miguel, christine. former president bill clinton campaigning on behalf of his wife in tucson, arizona. a place where the president is extremely popular. the inclusion and financial equality carried on weight with the voters here. this is a state where he is extremely popular. the only democrat to carry arizona since harry truman decades ago. he wasn't here alone. he was alongside mark kelly and gabby giffords. >> hillary is tough. hillary is courageous. she will fight to make our families safer. in the white house she will stand up to the gun lobby.

that's why i'm voting for hillary. >> reporter: on the other side of the ticket, vermont senator bernie sanders continues to fight on. he was here in arizona over the weekend visiting the border with mexico and pemeeting with immigrant families. winning the state would represent a breath of fresh air and change of momentum for his campaign. he attacked hillary clinton over the weekend. >> when we began this campaign about ten months ago, the general feeling of the media and pundits is we were looking at a coronation. there was an anointed candidate who would simply and quietly get the democratic nomination. ten months have come and gone. doesn't look to me that's the

case. >> reporter: there are 75 delegates at stakes here in arizona. two other states voting, utah and idaho on tuesday. it could be a big day for hillary clinton if she wins this tuesday. for bernie sanders, it could represent a rebirth of his campaign that lost momentum in recent weeks. >> thank you, boris. new this morning, a peek into the campaign finances of the candidates. hillary clinton has nearly $31 million in cash to spend this month. according to filings with the election commission. bernie sanders has $17 million. sanders received $43 million in february. that's more than clinton. the three super tuesday primaries were expensive. sanders out spent clinton by $10 million. on the republican side, ted cruz has $8 million of cash on hand. nearly half of that can only be spent on the general election. donald trump and john kasich

have more than $1 million each to spend. trump has been funding his own campaign. he loaned himself $23.4 million so far. he received $9.8 million in contributions. on the eve of the races, all five presidential hopefuls sit down with cnn tonight. >> that will be something to tune in for. the history unfolding in havana. president obama going where no u.s. president has gone for 88 years. just watching him on the streets of havana amazing. in the capital of cuba, the trip is the most prominent sign of the new normal of the relations with the countries. he will meet with the president and talk about human rights. we get more on the president's trip from cnn's jim acosta. >> reporter: christine and

miguel, changes in the air in cuba as president obama spends the first full day on the island. he will lay a wreath at the memorial. he will hold a bilateral meeting with president raul castro. he toured old havana with the first family. he stopped by the cathedral. he talked to the embassy staff here in cuba. >> it's been nearly 90 years since a u.s. president stepped foot in cuba. 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. >> reporter: tomorrow, the president will give a speech to the cuban people. he will talk about expanding human rights for cuban people. talking about the freedom of the

press and assembly. the president will wind down the trip with a baseball game. christine and miguel. >> jim, thanks for that. jim wrote a great piece you can find on cnn.com about his family's history in cuba. >> all of the history and the president's trip will have out sized implications. the captured paris terror suspect revealing new information to investigators about were more attacks about to be launched? we are live with that next. well, it was nice to see everyone.

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abdeslam's arrest. cnn's nima elbagir is live if belgium. nima, can he be believed? >> reporter: that is the question authorities have to weigh at the moment. the reality of his ability to hide out where he did in his childhood neighborhood, that's the first sign that really so much of the talk of the broader network is absolutely borne out by the reality on the ground. his ability to stay underground must have taken a much broader network authorities are saying than they first suspected. take a listen to the interior minister. >> to be honest, i was surprised. after a certain moment, we thought as we got any signal about his presence in brussels. we thought he was abroad. we see he was here.

again, i say, we don't know what he did in the four months. did he stay in brussels all this time? >> reporter: what is really ringing alarm bells, miguel, the belief he was able to put together a new network around him. it is that network they believe was planning the series of attacks. the threat level remains here at three. the second highest. interpol is cautioning all european countries to be hyper vigilant at borders. it is not just focusing on local networks, but a belief, authorities say, jihadis from syria are potentially making their way here to link in to the support networks and attempt to carry out attacks. miguel. >> that is the concern there. belgium faces more. give us a sense of how small this neighborhood is. this is a tiny place. it would not just be him, but people around him that were keeping him under wraps

basically. >> reporter: and this house was in fact a street away from the site of the first paris attacks. he literally went back to where they first were looking for him. the sense we got to speaking with people, there is so little penetration by the belgian authorities into the communities and network, part of it is support, but part is fear, miguel. they sense that isis has the ability, these extremist networks have the ability to harm them. it is that contributing to the culture of silence. it is that the belgian authorities are getting people to cooperate and trust them. we have even the authorities have not been one step ahead of the network so far. >> incredible. nima in belgium. thank you very much. right in his childhood neighborhood. new information this morning

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pentagon identified the u.s. marine killed by isis rocket attack this weekend in iraq. officials say 27-year-old staff sergeant louis cardin from california died when a coalition base in northern iraq came under fire from isis. several other marines were wounded. the war intensifying now. we have jomana karadsheh live in jordan. jomana, we did not know about

this air strike until this news. the military plan to tell the public about the existence of the location some time this week. a tragic turn of events there. >> reporter: as you mentioned, christine, we did not know about the existence of the base on saturday. two rockets targeted the base near the town of makhmour. one of the rockets landed inside the base killing the marine and wounding several others. we don't know how many were wounded in the attack. u.s. officials telling cnn they were going to make an announcement this week about the creation of the fire base. fire bases are usually remote bases that are set up to fire artillery to provide cover and support for advancing infantry troops.

in the past couple weeks, a couple hundred marines set up this base in northern iraq with two main missions. one to provide protection and support for a nearby coalition base where 5,000 iraqi forces are being trained for that eventual operation to retake the city of mosul. another mission we understand is to provide that artillery cover for iraqi forces in the coming weeks and months when they make their advance on the city of mosul. the assumption here, according to u.s. defense official is that in the past few days as the marines were moving in and setting up the space and firing practice rounds, this is when isis militants in the area noticed their presence and this is what could have led to the attack we saw on saturday. really under scoring the dangers here, christine, to u.s. forces

in the limited combat operation that we are seeing on the ground in iraq. >> jomana karadsheh from jordan. thank you. government officials in turkey say an isis attack in istanbul. officials believe they are being targeted because of increased cooperation with the u.s. led coalition fighting isis in syria. 26 minutes past the hour. in hours, donald trump meets with the republican elite. can he convince them he is their best hope in the race for president as violence and chaos erupt on the campaign trail. next. "why are you checking your credit score?"

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in just hours, donald trump

meets with top republicans making his case he is the best for president. and happening now, president obama in cuba. the first time a u.s. president has visited the country in 88 years. an historic visit that is promising plenty of controversy. the captured paris attacker revealing more attacks were planned. what we are learning. welcome back to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm miguel marquez. good to see you. 31 minutes past the hour. more chaos at donald trump rallies. the campaign staff vowing to beef up security at future events after two more incidents of violence over the weekend. trump hopes to put out a few political fires today. he meets with two dozen influential republican leaders in washington hoping to mend fences with the establishment. he hopes to speak to the pro israel group.

we get more from cnn's chris frates. >> reporter: good morning. later today, donald trump who has been criticized for not being a big enough friend of israel will give a speech to the pro israel group. a number of abbbe a rabbis are ought. out. those expected protests today come after a wild weekend that found the campaign manager facing charges he man handled someone at a trump event. yesterday, trump seemed to defend his campaign manager. >> because security at the arena, the police were a little bit lax and they had signs up in the area that were horrendous. i give him credit for having spirit. he wanted them to take down the horrible signs. >> reporter: this is not the

first time trump campaign manager corey lewandowski. a reporter accused him of grab be her by the arm and yanking her backwards. he has denied touching her at all. he denies any of the charges. this has all the republican chairman reince priebus weighing in, thinking professionals should deal with protesters. a man at the arizona rally was sucker punched. miguel, christine. >> chris, thanks for. that the protester who was sucker punched in tucson saturday is speaking out. video from the rally shows protester bryan sanders escorted out of the building by security when suddenly things get out of hand. listen to sanders describe what happened. >> i had a sign that said bad

for america and it had trump with the confederate flag superimposed on his face. i was escorted out of the building. the guy grabbed the sign out of my hand and sucker punched me. then he got on top of me and hit me. all i can say is this is democracy. people that don't want us to be protesting, they should look deep inside and see what they're supporting. this is what it brings. this is the '60s all over again. getting punched in the face is no problem. trump's not going to be in the white house. >> it turns out getting punched in the face is a problem. the man punching him is 31-year-old tom pettaway. donald trump and his two republican rivals making a final push for votes before two more big races tomorrow.

arizona and utah. ted cruz trying to sell the notion this is a two-man race while john kasich insists there will able contested convention. listen to both candidates make their cases. >> donald is in a difficult position. if a two-man race, he has a hard time breaking 50%. our path forward is win primaries. and amass the delegates. >> everybody has to face the fact we're going to an open multiballot convention. that's where we're headed. the convention is an extension of what we're going through right now. i've been at a convention that was contested in 1976. what happens is the delegates take everything seriously. they will take a look at people's experience and electability. that's fine. what is everybody so panicked? everybody needs to take a little chill pill to tell you the truth.

>> stay with cnn. ohio governor john kasich will be joining us live on "new day" in the 8:00 hour. >> passing out chill pills. on the democratic side, bernie sanders and hillary clinton hitting the trail hard. arizona and utah. clinton campaigns in phoenix. both candidates battling for every vote. clinton hoping to seal the deal soon. sanders determined to stay alive. let's get the latest from cnn's boris sanchez. >> reporter: miguel, christine, former president bill clinton campaigning on behalf of his wife here in tucson, arizona. the former president is popular here. the piemessage of inclusion ai carrying a lot of weight with voters. he is extremely popular.

the only democrat to carry arizona since harry truman decades ago. he was here with gabby giffords and her husband, mark kelly. >> hillary is tough. hillary is courageous. she will fight to make our families safer. in the white house, she will stand up to the gun lobby. that's why i'm voting for hillary. >> reporter: on the other side of the ticket, bernie sanders continues to fight on. he was here in arizona over the weekend. visiting the border with mexico and meeting with immigrant families. the senator spent $1.5 million in ads here in arizona. winning the state would represent a breath of fresh air and change of momentum for his

campaign. he attacked hillary clinton over the weekend. >> when we began this campaign about ten months ago, the general feeling of the media and pundits is we were looking at a kor o coronation. there was a candidate that would quietly and simply let the democratic nomination. ten months have come and gone. doesn't look to me like that's the case. >> reporter: now there are 75 delegates here in arizona. two other states voting. utah and idaho on tuesday. again, for bernie sanders, it could represent a rebirth of his campaign that lost momentum if recent weeks. christine. >> boris, on the eve of tomorrow's western tuesday

races, all five hopefuls sit down with anderson cooper and wolf blitzer. you can see them tonight at 8:00 p.m. on cnn. history in havana. president obama going where no u.s. president has gone for 88 years. arriving in the capital on sunday. the president's historic trip is the latest sign of the new normal. he meets with cuba's president and expected to raise concerns about human rights in the speech to the cuban people. we get more from jim acosta. >> reporter: christine and miguel, changes in the air here in cuba as president obama prepares to spend the first full day on the island. he will lay a wreath at the memorial remembering the cuban revolutionary and later on in the day, he holds a bilateral meeting with raul castro. the president toured old havana with the first family and

stopped by the old cathedral after he talked to the embassy staff here in cuba where he talked about the significance of the trip. >> it's been nearly 90 years since a u.s. president stepped foot in cuba. it is wonderful to be here. >> reporter: tomorrow, the president will give a speech to the cuban people. the white house will talk about expanding human rights and freedom of the press and the president will wind down his trip with the baseball team with the cuban national team and the tampa bay rays. christine. >> you can tell the castro regime is out. he's there. first time in 90 years. a u.s. hotel chain operate in cuba for the first time in 50

years. starwood is taking over three properties and renovate and turn one hotel in a budget friendly hotel. starwood would take over the palatial. it operates sheridan and westin. air bnb is operating as well. it is still technically illegal for u.s. citizens to visit cuba, but flights are beginning soon and it is easier to travel there. >> i want to go. i want to spend my money there. the captured paris terror suspect admits more attacks were in the pipelines. that story is coming up next.

authorities in belgium say salah abdeslam, the lone surviving suspect in the paris massacre is now talking to investigators and planning a new attack before he was captured last week. officials are taking the claim of the new attack seriously. a cache of heavy weapons lead up to his arrest. cnn's nima elbagir has more from belgium. what is fascinating is he was found in his neighborhood, basically, of molenbeek. >> reporter: just a street away from where they were first looking for him, christine. what is extraordinary is how surprising this is to belgian authorities given the central role molenbeek has played and the nexus into the paris attacks. throughout the months of abdeslam's ability to evade

capture, authorities had been working with suspicion the network was bigger. bigger than they suspected to allow and support him to evade them for so long. it is far bigger than they ever suspected. they were originally looking for ten. they already arrested 30. abdeslam, they believe, was able to bring a new networks to play around him. the new network suspected of planning new attacks in brussels. when you take that with the reality of the warnings interpol had to put out, there is a sense and tension in belgium into the warning of european countries to be hyper vigilant of the borders. jihadis could be making their way here from syria. for belgian authorities, they continue to question salah abdeslam. >> there were more weapons discovered and heading up to his

arrest. that is causing concern. he was part of something that was actively planning something else. >> reporter: absolutely. given authorities say they don't believe his claim that he changed his mind. that caused him to turn back from france. they believe there was another plot, even in paris that was unfolding. what emerged is how central he was in paris. up to this point, everybody had this working theory that he was a would-be attacker that failed to detonate. he was ferrying the paris command teams. he rented that apartment that delivered the attackers to the site where they spread so much horror. this is incredibly hard to hear. the family members of those killed in the attacks in paris have been recoiling.

for them, unfortunately, this is a lot longer while authorities try to glean as much information. >> nima, thanks. turning to the battle over the supreme court nominee merrick garland. several liberal organizations are planning protests today at the gop senators up for re-election. they are demanding a fair hearing for garland, but the republican leadership is not willing to budge. >> there's a lot of activity on the issue in the country on both sides. a lot of people think the appointment should be made by the next president will be weighing in as well. that's the principle. who should make the decision? a lame duck decision by a president out the door or the one we are in the process of electing right now? what is the tradition? it has been 80 years since a vacancy created in a presidential election year was

filled. you have to go back to 1888, grover cleveland in the white house, to find the last time a vacancy created a presidential year was filled by a senate of a different party from the president. >> now the conservative group crisis network starts airing $2 million of ads today. a redistricting fight in virginia goes to the supreme court today. the justices must decide if lawmakers reconfigured the congressional map to protect the only african-american congress member in the commonwealth or make sure another african-american did not join him. they insist the redistricts was to comply with the voting rights act. federal law enforcement is investigating threatening letters send to donald trump's sister, an appeals court judge,

and his son. she received her letter in philadelphia on friday, a day after trump's son received one containing white powder. both letters stated trump should drop out of the race. it is not clear if the same person sent both. jurors in the gawker/hulk hogan case are back in court this morning after awarding the professional wrestler $115 million judgment. they will deliberate to consider punitive damages against the media company for airing a sex tape featuring hogan and a friend's wife. gawker is appealing states the jury was not allowed to review the sealed documents. >> huge decision by that jury. shivers down the spines of media executives. the dow jones industrial average on the six-day winning streak. can we make it to seven?

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the pentagon identified the u.s. marine held by an isis rocket attack in iraq this weekend. officials say 27-year-old staff sergeant louis cardin died. several other marines were wounded. the war against isis intensifying now in and around mosul in northern iraq. we have jomana karadsheh live in amman, jordan. jomana. >> reporter: miguel, on saturday, two rockets targeted the base near mosul. one rocket hit a base near the

city and one u.s. marine killed. several others wounded. it is unclear how many were wounded. what we are learning from u.s. defense officials is this was a fire base. these are bases that are usually set up in remote areas providing artillery support and cover for infantry troops that are about five to ten miles away. according to defense officials, no official announcement had been made about the existence of the fire base. a couple of other similar bases, but within larger iraqi bases. this is the only one we know of that has been set up independently in northern iraq over the past couple of weeks. a couple hundred marines moved in and set up this camp with two main missions. one is to provide artillery support and protection for a nearby coalition base where about 5,000 iraqi troops are trained for that eventual operation to retake the city of

mosul. another mission is to provide the artillery cover for iraqi forces when they make that move and start advancing toward the city of mosul in the comes weeks and months, whenever that may happen. according to u.s. officials, miguel, it seems militants may have monitored the forces and marines moving into the area in the past few days. especially when they were firing practice rounds of artillery from the base which may have given the indication that u.s. forces were in the area and allowed to target the fire base. underscoring the danger for u.s. forces there. even in the limited combat role. >> an increase in the number of u.s. troops involved. jomana karadsheh for us in jordan. thank you. 58 minutes past the hour. stock futures pointing down a bit.

the dow is riding a six-day win streak. oil back below $39 a barrel. stocks in europe are lower. the s&p 500 starting with gains now for the year. the dow is up 1% for 2016. s&p turned positive friday. nasdaq down 4%. here is what the recovery looks like. telecommunications and utilities and energy and industrial. energy is rebounding impressively. of the 30 companies in the dow, 17 are now higher. here are the biggest gainers. verizon up 15%. caterpillar up 11% and 3m up 9%. apple one of the highly held

stocks held. apple expected to unveil a new small smaller iphone. some expect apple to unveil watch bands. for all things apple, check out cnn money. we will have the latest from the event. we love an apple announcement. "early start" continues right now. >> can donald trump win over the gop establishment? in hours, the frontrunner meets with party leaders following chaos on his campaign trail. and president obama in cuba. the first u.s. president to visit the country in 88 years. what's on the agenda on the trip? and the captured paris terror suspect behind bars claiming more attacks were planned. we are live. weod morning.