Welcome to today on a tuesday morning. Im savannah and we have willie in for matt this morning. Well talk to donald trump in a couple minutes. Hes taking fire from a sitting president and two former president s in this campaign. Not to mention all his rivals. A lot to talk about in politics, fresh polls, as well. Our top story, the major showdown between the federal government and apple. This after apple declined to give access to encrypted content on San Bernardino shooters syed farooks iphone. Apple is asked to help the fbi get the data. Steve patterson has more. Officials say this may be the key as to who suspects were doing at the time of the shooting. They say they need the key to the phone in order to make progress. Reporter a federal judge to help the fbi unlock the iphone of San Bernardino mass shooter syed farook. Apple said they needed reasonable technical assistance. Authorities are trying to fill in the 18 missing minutes of the killers actions after the shooting. The 18 minutes is critical. Reporter the fbi wants to know if anything on the phone can fill in the gap and if there are any other clues to the plot that left 14 people dead and 22 wounded. Just last week, fbi director james comey told the senate panel, getting into farooks phone is key. We have one of the killers phones that we havent been able to open. Its been over two months and were working on it. Reporter overnight, tim cook released a statement saying its cooperated with the fbi on the case but will fight the order. Saying that the United States government demanded apple take an unprecedented step which its far beyond the legal case at hand. Cook has been an opponent of opening phones to the government. Telling 60 minutes, it would make us all vulnerable. On your smartphone today, your iphone, theres likely health information, theres financial information, and you should have the ability to protect it. And the only way we know how to do that is to encrypt it. Why is that . Because if there is a way to get in, then somebody will find a way in. I want to be clear. What the government is actually worried about is this builtin Security Software that could auto delete all the data on the phone when they try to crack it. Like when you get locked out and put in the incorrect password in too many times. If you compare your iphone to the house, the feds arent asking apple to open the door, just turn off the security alarm. Lets turn to msnbcs chief legal correspondent. Good morning. There are technical and legal questions. This isnt the typical case where the federal government gets a warrant and says, turn over this data or this phone. The judge is basically telling apple, come up with a way to unlock this information. To get this data. Morning. As you say, what the judge is asking for is not only to get the material, which apple says it doesnt have because its well encrypted, but rather to help the feds get in and decrypt or depassword the whole thing so they can get it. The expertise. Theyre school for helpasking for help, not just content. Tim cook says if we do it once, we put at risk all our customers. Is that true . To the extent that this becomes the method. This becomes the socalled backdoor. What apple always said is, look, we have. We built really good security products, which people love for a wide variety of reasons. One of them is they know their stuff is safe and secure and private. We dont want to get in the business of creating a key that anyone can use. A hacker, a criminal or a terrorist. I talked to Law Enforcement sources about this. For years, its been a priority, to the top of the fbi. This morning, were seeing the highest escalation of it. You have a court order in the important. Apple is saying, even in this case, theyre not backing down. Itll be interesting to see where they go from here. Apple is going to fight it all the way. This could go to the high court. Ari, thank you. Now to the race for the white house. As the republican president ial candidates fight for votes in South Carolina ahead of from the front runner donald trump in a moment. We begin with nbc National Correspondent peter alexander. Good morning. Donald trump has proven himself largely immune to attacks. But the latest criticism comes from president obama. President obama singling out the party front runner. Saying the American People are sensible, and saying that hes confident that being president is a serious job. He has done such a lousy job as president. Reporter donald trump pouncing on president obama in the front runners now famous fashion. Youre lucky i didnt run last time when romney ran because you would have been a oneterm president. Reporter defending himself after the president waded into the republican race, dismissing the former apprentice hosts chances. I continue to believe mr. Trump will not be president. Its not hosting a talk show or a reality show. Its not promotion. Its hard. Reporter here in south into a bible belt brawl. Ted holds up the bible and lies about so many things. Reporter trump fighting back after ted cruz released a video, warning voters that trump is playing games with the issue of abortion. A candidate that cant protect the right to life. Cant be trusted to protect any of our other godgiven rights either. Reporter jeb bush is relying on a thirdplace finish to propel him forward. Is South Carolina the last stand for jeb bush . No, its not. Were in it for the long haul. Reporter bush, who just replaced his glasses with contacts for the first time, believes americans need to take a closer look at trumps record. Hes got a failed business record. More bankruptcies. He talks about how great he is in business when, in fact, he ripped off shareholders. Reporter later, comparing trump to a parking ingbarking dog. You have to keep talking through it. Its not a skill set i ever envisioned being necessary to aspire to the presidency of the United States. But ive gotten better at it. Rah rah, rah. Reporter adding new ammunition to the trail. A handgun captioned, america. It spun around parodies online. In South Carolina, theres a strong history of getting it right. Correctly picking the future republican nomine, all by once since 1980. This morning, donald trump in the latest poll, up 38 points. Trailing behind him, ted cruz with 22. Marco rubio in third. Trump lost almost ten points of support from before last weekends debate to after it. Savannah . Peter alexander, thank you. Lets turn to donald trump now, who is on the phone. Good morning. Good to talk to you. Good morning. I dont know if its a sitting president , a democrat, and the former president , republican, republican bush, both kind of going after you this week. Let me reiterate what president obama said. He said, its not a talk show or reality, its not promotion, marketing, not a matter of pandering and getting yourself on the news, its serious. Do you think this is a hurdle for you, a liability . The fact you were a reality show host, do you think youre having to prove you truly are serious . Unlike jeb bush, who is really you look at what this guy its a sad thing, how hes done. Unlike what he said, i built an incredible business worth billions of dollars. Ive won virtually every battle ive ever been in in business. Its what people want. They see it. The reality show, that was one thing i did, which became one of the as you know because it was on nbc became one of the most successful shows on television. Nba was brksnbc was begging me to continue to do it. Frankly, my record in business has been phenomenal. Ive built a Great Company and had tremendous success in what im doing now. We have bigger crowds than bernie sanders, by the way. He has second. We have a message. The message is basically that we have the worst president in the history of the United States, and hes done a terrible job. We have a mess in our country, between 19 trillion in debt and all of the other problems. We cant beat isis. We have a border thats like swiss cheese, as i said before. You know, were a terribly run country, and we have a president that doesnt know what hes doing. He can make the statement and, of course, im obviously his worst night pair ifmare if i go in, but people are tired, angry and fed up. Its willie, good morning. Morning. During the debate, People Democratic debate because of the positions you took criticizing george w. Bush on the iraq war and 9 11, even planned parenthood. There are conservatives who are suspicious that youre a progressive in ways, having held those positions in the past. Did you give them more reason to be suspicious with what you said on saturday . Every poll said i won the debate. If you look at time magazine, their poll said i won the debate. Im prolife. I have a great record of being a conservative. Im also a common sense conservative, willie, as we discussed before. We have to do things with common sense. Certainly, im the most conservative person there is on the border and on security, on the military, on taking care of our vets who are being taken care of horribly. Im the most conservative person there is. Were going to end obamacare, which is a total and complete disease. Disaster. Well replace it with something common core is an example. Were going to go to local education. I think i said most of these things. Frankly, most people said i won the debate. Donald, fair enough. Your positions on george w. Bush, you would agree, are minority positions inside the Republican Party . Well, look, we should not have gone into iraq. He was the president. He took us into iraq. When you look at the migration, look at all of the problems in the middle east, it all started by going into iraq. Im honest, whether its republican or not republican, i say common sense, but im honest. He made a horrible decision when we went into iraq. Can i ask you one question about ted cruz . Youve been saying for a while now that you have a question as to whether hes eligible under the constitution to run for president because of his birth in canada. You talk about a lawsuit. I guess my question to you is an old expression, why not put your money where your mouth is . If you think there is an issue there, why not go ahead and sue important issue that needs to be clarified . Well, i may do that. He was born in canada. He lived there for three to four years. He was there for a long time. Until 15 months ago, he was a citizen of canada, joint with us. Youre saying you wont sue if he apologizes for the attack ads. No, i say i may do it. I may be doing him a favor. The democrats are going to sue him on that issue. Many laywyers say you have to be born on the soil. Have you had your lawyers draw up the paperwork . Well look at it. Ted cruz holds up the bible and then he lies. Hes lied about me having to do with the second amendment. Im the strongest person on the stage on the second amendment. He said, donald trump doesnt like the second amendment. Im the strongest person on the stage on many things. He says, donald trump isnt pro life. He said, ben carson is out of the race in iowa. He said, ben carson has left the race. Had he not done that, i probably would have won, number one, but more importantly, ben carson was treated horribly by what this guy did. After the election ended, he called up ben carson to apologize. What good does that do . I dont think ben carson accepted the apology, and he shouldnt. Fed ted cruz is a dishonest guy. A highly respected man said ted cruz is one of the most dishonest men hes ever seen or dealt with. Yet, he talks about evangelical. Thats why im leading in the evangelical vote. They see he is a dishonest person. You have a lot to say and we appreciate your time. Unfortunately, were out of time, but thank you for being here. Thank you very much. By the way, mr. Trump has a town hall tonight in charleston. Starts at 8 00 eastern. Democratic side, hillary targeting minority voters who will be critical in nevada and South Carolina. Nbc News White House correspondent Kristen Welker is in chicago for us. Secretary clinton will hold a get out the vote rally later today. She and senator sanders are locked in a fierce fight for africanamerican support. Reporter with an eye on South Carolina, secretary clinton went to harlem tuesday, making her strongest pitch yet to africanamerican voters. These are not only problems of economic inequality. These are problems of racial inequality. Reporter despite a nagging cough. Too much to say. Reporter clinton energized the crowd, talking about education and taking a swipe at sanders, suggesting hes late to the conversation. Time and say the right thing and think thats enough. Reporter again, casting him as a single issue candidate. We arent a single issue country. We face a complex set of economic, social and political challenges. Reporter at a rally in atlanta, close to 5,000, sanders didnt engage clinton. Instead, sticking to his script, proposing changes to the criminal justice system, speaking out about the death of unarmed black men. We are going to end the horrors that we have seen of unarmed africanamericans being shot and killed by police officers. Reporter a new poll shows clinton with a convincing lead in South Carolina. 56 to 38 , fuelled in large part by minority support. Sanders is working to broaden his appeal. Earlier tuesday, campaigned with erica garner, whose father died officer put him in a chokehold. Sanders brush aside bill clintons comments, saying his supporters are similar to tea partiers. I think some of the things president clinton has been saying are unfortunate. We shouldnt be making silly remarks. Now, a new poll just out this morning shows there is a virtual dead heat in nevada. Secretary clinton gets 48 . Senator sanders gets 47 . Its difficult to get accurate polling in nevada, but political analysts are in broad agreement, it is a close race there with just three days before the caucuses. Willie and savannah . Tightening up. Thanks so much. Now to the debate over replacing justice antonin scalia. President obama waging into the Republican Opposition against him, naming scalias successor. Andrea mitchell has the latest on that. Good morning. Good morning, savannah. President obama is forcefully rejecting republican calls to Justice Scalias replacement. Even as a handful of republican senators are breaking with their leaders and saying the obama nominee should at least get a fair hearing. The constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now. Reporter in california tuesday, president obama arguing he will nominate someone for the high court. Despite calls by Republican Leaders that the pick be left to his suckcesssuccessor. Historically, this has not been viewed as a question. Theres no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years. Thats not in the constitutional text. Reporter even some republicans criticize what appeared to be a rush to the political barricade so soon after Justice Scalias death. This was a misstep. First off, that is not the first thing you say within hours of the passing of someone like Justice Scalia. To pick someone indisputably qualified. But with battle lines drawn, hearing . The republican senator in charge of any confirmation hearing, Chuck Grassley told iowa radio i would wait until the nominee is made before i would make any decisions. Reporter later, senator grassley seemed to backtrack, telling nbc news hes not open to a confirmation. Remembrances for Justice Scalia this week. A cloth draped in his honor. Hell return one last time, lying in repose at the courts great hall, with a service set at the basilica at the National Shrine in washington. Law enforcement officials and the owner of the texas ranch where he died are completely ruling out foul play. Saying a pillow found in his bed was above his head, not over his face, as some reports initially the scalia vacancy is already a big issue for the 2016 candidates. With each side seeing an opportunity to determine the outcome of major issues like abortion and immigration, depending on who gains the majority in the close 54 decisions. Thank you so much. A rare moment for pope francis on tuesday during his fiveday trip to mexico. The pope became visibly irritated when overly eager people tugged on his sleeve from behind a barrier, causing him to fall into a man in a wheelchair. Pope francis said in spanish, dont be selfish. The pontiff stepped back and waved to people a few more minutes before leaving. Today, hell hold a large outdoor mass. He also plans to speak to inmates at a prison and visit the u. S. mexico border. Last night was the Kennel Club Dog show. But we have our winner. C. J. thats right. A german short haired pointer from california was best in show. The 3yearold beat out more than 2,700 other dogs to win the nations most prestigious dog competition. Lucy finished second. Congratulations to c. J. The New York Times said the tension was thick in the air, and so was the smell of wet dog. It was a rainy day. Enjoy your cheerios. Whats going on, al . Look what happened in florida. Tornadoes touching down. Could have been an f3 tornado there. Then you go to the north. Rochester, new york, a massive snowstorm bringing really all kinds of traffic to a standstill. A real mess there. In the next half hour, were going to talk about a big change in our temperatures for a big were going to get to your sfx cell phone vibrates. Yeah . sigh youre okay. Hes okay, he made it jason. What do you mean . We were very bad boys. Alexa whats in the news . Alexa heres the news, alecbaldwin and Jason Schwartzman were seen mooning paparazzi. Baldwin threw his shoe at photographers before making arun for it. My poor cashmere socks. Alexa, will you order another pair of brescianis. Reordering bresciani socks. Okay listen. Can you send some lawyers or something . moaning . Alec . Look for clearing skies today with highs in the mid50s. Thursday. Sunny. Highs in the lower 50s. Friday. Sunny. Highs in the mid 50s. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Saturday. Partl y sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. Sunday. Partly sunny. Highs in the upper 60s. Monday. Cloudy. A chance of