good afternoon. i'm alicia menendez live in manchester, new hampshire, where the clock is ticking on the democratic field. they have just two days to convince voters they are the best candidate to take on president trump in november. the candidates fanned out across the granite state today shaking as many hands as they can, and trying to rally their supporters. and the fight for the moderate votes continued its feisty tone. mayor pete buttegeig fighting back against attacks from joe

biden again today. >> oh, come on, man. you think -- this guy is not a barack obama. >> he is right. i am not barack obama. neither is he. neither is anyone running for president right to you. >> we begin with the latest polls, and the very tight race at the top. overnight tracking polls show senator bernie sanders and pete buttegeig in a statistical tie for first place. within the 4% margin of error. sands comes in at 24%, and buttegeig is just two points behind him. meantime, the rest of the field is playing catchup, with senator elizabeth warren at 13%, joe biden at 10%, and a surging senator amy klobuchar rounding out the top five with 9%. with we now are nbc road warriors on the ground in new hampshire. shaquille brewster is following the sanders campaign, and vaughn hillyard is following the buttegeig campaign. shaquille, i want to start with you. what are you hearing from camp

sanders? >> well, you see, senator sanders just trying to get his message out to as many people as possible. it started this morning when he was on four of the national news shows. he has been doing local interviews a lot of them. then he is having plenty of events. he is about to start his 30 ooechbd in the event a couple of minutes. the last event we just left had an i don't have flow crowd. you see him trying to keep up the momentum. what you are also seeing from senator sanders, and it reflects the polls you are just listing. in the polls you see it is mayor pete buttegeig fighting for the first place position. yes, senator sanders has the lead quite now, yes, he is a neighboring senator has the home turf advantage but mayor pete buttegeig is right behind him. what you see from the sanders campaign and senator sanders himself is he is escalating the rhetoric against mayor pete buttegeig. listen to what he told supportesupport e ers just earlier today. >> my friend pete buttegeig has received -- we are not here to denigrate pete. he is running a great campaign.

but our views are different. pete has raised campaign contributions from over 40 billionaires. now, i was on a show this morning, a tv show. somebody says does it really matter where you get your money from? of course it matters. >> and then part of this campaign strategy here in new hampshire is driving up turnout. he told that overflow crowd that he needs a high voter turnout on tuesday. i spoke to a state director. he said they are knocking on doors making volunteers and phone calls voter interactions a prioritiary. he told the crowd yesterday alone they hit on 150,000 doors. he put that at an average of four doors a second that his campaign has been hitting here in the state of new hampshire. they have about seven ads up on the air wave its. they are raking in a lot of money. they feel good about his position here in new hampshire but they know it is going to take a lot of work in the last two days with so many voters who

are still undecided. >> vaughn hillyard, i want to go over to you. how is mayor pete's camp responding? >> it was just a bit ago, in the last hour, down never to dover, new hampshire, in which pete buttegeig squared of senator sanders directly, the two of them essentially walked out of iowa with a tie. now you see the polling there, it is clear who puj is up against here in new hampshire. of course buttegeig is relying on new hampshire to propel him forward to those other later early states as well as the super tuesday states where his numbers frankly aren't as good when it comes to polling. he needs this momentum. he has had big crowds at two events here today. i want to play for you a little bit of what buttegeig was saying up on stage just a bit ago in dover. he was clearly making a case against bernie sanders. take a listen. >> i respect senator sanders, but when i hear this message go out that you are either for a

revolution or you have got to be for the status quo -- that's a vision of the country that doesn't have room for most of us. as long as we are willing to have some common sense here, we can deliver the biggest change to american health care in a half century. but what we can do without is a plan so expensive that senator sanders himself freely admits he has no idea how it is suppose to be paid for. >> he went on to make the case that a nominee who can do math is needed to be the democratic's nominee. i am going to run in here. let's see here. work with me. we are here -- pete buttegeig -- we are going on the fly here. we are in summers worth new hampshire -- hello. >> hello. >> there are folks here, organizers, volunteers on the ground here and pete buttegeig made a surprise visit. they gave us a heads up to come but we were not allowed to tell anybody. you can see the south bend mayor here greeting folks. they have campaign offices here around the state. they have volunteers, organizers. this is a big part of the reason

they were able to pull off iowa. the big question mark was ultimately when it comes to election day, can he turn folk out? the big part i think we are going to be looking at over the course of the next 51 hours is how many independents he is able to bring out. there are 415,000 of theme registered. they are take part in the democratic primary. it is getting the neighbors out, particularly independents. buttegeig is trying to make a play here. he has two more events. when you come to events like this you meet everybody from dogs to folks, tourists here -- it is a little bit of a sight. we will throw it back to you. >> i appreciate that. our nbc road warrior sharks keel brewster and vaughn hillyard, thank you both so much. i want to bring in our panel. victoria mcrain with the boston

global. sahil cap your. can'ta scala, and kimberly atkins. senior washington news correspondentant at wnpr, also a msnbc contributor. we parachute in. we get to see the state. what is it that we are missing. what we are missing is wondering how voters are shopping and who they are looking at in this -- >> i have been shocked by the number of people who say, i wish i had more time. for most of us we feel like we have been watching the better part of 20 years. it to them feels like they are up against the gun. >> never underestimate the number of voters who tune in at the last minute, neve new hampshire. and the fact that joe biden failed in iowa means that a lot of moderates in particular, even moderately liberal people are looking around trying to figure out what to do because biden doesn't look as electable as he did a week ago. >> is that why we see buttegeig

and klobuchar both soaring? >> yes, i think that is one reason. look we don't know exactly what is going to happen on tuesday because there are so many people who are still undecided. if iowa gave anybody anything it is momentum, despite all of the problems that happened there. and the momentum is clearly with pete buttegeig right now. and it is biden and warren who have to pull out, really, really impressive showings on tuesday night or else that's a real blow to those campaigns moving forward. >> even though what both of those campaigns will say is that these two states are not representative. >> absolutely true. i am speaking in terms of momentum and a month from now. it is true n. a month, this race will look entirely different. it matters especially for someone like klobuchar in terms of money and fund rising. that's why she touted the fact that after the debate she pulled in $2.5 million from her donors. you have to have the money to continue to go on beyond that, beyond south carolina and into super tuesday. she is trying to make that case.

once you move to the southern states -- bernie sanders performed well in iowa and new hampshire in 2016. the story changed quickly after that. so that is where biden will be ascending and it will be harder for people like buttegeig and sanders moving forward. >> it feels like there are a lot of people merging into moderate lane. that was a lane that for a long time it looked like vice president biden might be able to occupy. what does it say that he is going after buttegeig, making that contrast point now? and is it too late for him to be drawing that contrast? >> joe biden clearly realizes he is at a perilous point in his campaign. he spent the last eight or nine months acting like the national front-runner which he was, but he is not the front runner in the early states. after iowa, after that devastating fourth place, what appears to be at least a fourth place finish, he has started to loosen up a little bit. it was an extraordinary press conference yesterday which i attended where joe biden spoke off cuff. he said what he really thought of pete buttegeig. he mocked his mayoral record.

he said easy not ready, he doesn't have the experience to have the job of the presidency. i think joe biden recognizes that pete buttegeig is peeling away a lot of voters from him at this point. there is progressive to moderate lane. there is also the outsider to insider spectrum which i think is more significant here. the top three finishers in iowa, bernie sanders, pete buttegeig and elizabeth warren are all seen as outsiders to a certain point. the outsiders are beating the insider at this point, joe biden. >> when you look at the sort of top tier of candidates what does it say to you that it is most lee white men in a party that prides itself on its diversity. >> i think it is less what it says to me than what it says to the voters. i think one sentiment that has been underexplored is the extent to which that enthusiasm gap -- have democrats by the top of the field shaping up as it is, old, older white folks, except for mayor pete -- but kamala harris,

kristen gillibrand, cory booker, these sort of -- these more diverse voices are gone. and some of the people -- i have had some anecdota evidence, conversations that suggest some voters are kind of, you know, deflated by that. and we saw the turnout problem in iowa. that continues in new hampshire. i think that's going to be something that the democratic party is going to have to grapple with. did this anxiety about defeating donald trump and everybody being a pundit kinds of end up in a place where you don't have that enthusiasm that barack obama inspired and that you might need to really defeat donald trump in 2020, in november. >> everybody being a pundit down to the candidates. i mean i am sometimes still shocked when we see them on the debate stage inasmuch as they will talk about their visions for the future, inasmuch as they will talk about sweeping policy change they are each making their own electability argument. >> electability is often in the eye of the beholder early on

with voters. until real results start to come in. i think that's the question now. you know, mayor pete really gave a very precise answer to joe biden and said, well, i think electability is all about who wins and who loses. and now the results are coming in. i think there is worry among party elites in the democratic party who say they might regret that joe biden was in this race because he took a lot of oxygen and a lot of money out of the process early on and didn't let some of these younger candidates, kamala harris, cory booker, flourish the way they might have otherwise. >> it was the non-white candidates who were the most hurt by joe biden being in the race because he had such a dominant support. and none of the other candidates were able to peel away those voters. i am sure some of them are now wondering if they had stuck around and watched joe biden do as poorly as he did in iowa and as he is doing in new hampshire. >> they would have needed the

cash. >> had the dncette not set the debate rules the way they did to have to spend so much of their time and money meeting donor thresholds instead of mounting strong campaigns. >> i want to ask you about one more thing. the entire panel. tom steyer made an interesting point about the economy, it is something the debates haven't focused on so much. let's listen. >> what we have seen this week is that unless the democratic party comes together and nominates somebody who can take mr. trump on the economy because he is so clearly running on the economy then we won't win. >> >> the whole ball game? >> i am not sure it is. the economy is good right now. that's the best news for president trump. i think what the democrats have to prove, whoever the nominee is, is why they should still -- why voters should give somebody else the ball even though the economy is good even though the stock market is performing well.

i think it is the exact opposite. they have to paint a vision of the america that they want the see that is different from trump's america. it is who can best make that in some ways emotional appeal as opposed to an economic one. >> thank you all so much for being here with us. still ahead, the ground game. how elizabeth warren is trying to get her voters excited ahead of tuesday's primary. and remember, tuesday night, when the results are coming you want to be with us. live coverage of the new hampshire primaries starts at 6:00 eastern right here on msnbc. 've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even a "gold medal grizzly." (sports announcer) what an unlikely field in this final heat. (burke) not exactly a skinny dipper, but we covered it. at farmers, we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two. so get a quote at farmers-dot-com.

♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... kids, bedtime! ...she was worried we wouldn't be able to keep up. course we can. what couldn't keep up was our bargain detergent. turns out it's mostly water, and water doesn't get out all the stains. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. kind of like our quiet time. [slurping] what are you doing? don't pay for water. tide gives you three times the active cleaning ingredients. if it's got to be clean, it's got to be tide.

after a third place finish in iowa, massachusetts senator elizabeth warren is hoping a home field advantage will make the difference for her here in neighboring new hampshire. our nbc road warrior deepa sieve ran is in newport covering the warren campaign. i want to hear from you. what are you hearing on the ground from warren from her supporters? >> we are in newport, new hampshire, right now. it is snowing. it is very cold in new hampshire. elizabeth warren is actually right behind me at a pub. she is greeting supporters there and will be chatting. she's going to be there for a little bit longer. she was at an event earlier in concord, new hampshire, and her message today is unlike other candidates'. we are hearing from bernie sanders, joe biden, pete buttegeig, they are kind of attacking each other. they are going after each other trying to draw those

differences. and elizabeth warren is doing the exact opposite. she is stressing a message of being the unity candidate. she wants to bring this party together she told reporters in a gaggle today that she doesn't want a repeat of 2016. while all of these other candidates, some of whom are beating her in recent polls are talking about each other she's actually talking about bringing the party together. that message is actually resonating with voters. i was talking to a man today who supported bernie sanders in 2016. and he told me he is now backing elizabeth warren because he wants a candidate who can work with others. for him, bernie sanders just suspect ma isn't making that cut. and for rhyme right now elizabeth warren is. >> we heard in iowa about warren's ground game and how they was going to make up the difference for her. what is her organization looking like here in new hampshire? >> that's a great question. yesterday she want doorknocking herself and actually brought a whole lot of cast canvassers together to knock doors with

her. elizabeth warren is the senator next door, from massachusetts. at her event today in concord i saw people leaving the event before she was done speaking. that stood out to me. i asked her about it. she pushed back. she said she is feeling the hype, feeling the enthusiasm. but you have to look at how pete buttegeig is pulling in crowds. he had 1,800 people show up in nashua today. elizabeth warren isn't pulling in the crowd size or the numbers. enthusiasm not as high up there for her. although she says she is feeling it herself. we will see how that turns out on tuesday. >> nbc road warrior deepa shivram in newport. warren is continuing the fight before a candidate that was once atop of the pack with a lack luster performance in new hampshire be a fatal blow? >> look, the way i see this is it is going to be a long campaign. i have been to 31 states to do town halls, red states and blue states. we have about 1,000 people on the ground. we built a campaign to go the

distance. and that's what i think is going to happen here. >> joining me now is congresswoman deb holland, representative for new mexico and warren's campaign spokesperson. thanks for being here. it sounds like she is moderating expectations here. how important is it to finish in the top two in much in? >> in iowa she outperformed, overperformed what people expected her to. after that, she focused on new hampshire. we have been in new hampshire on the ground since friday. i arrived on friday. there is a tremendous amount of excitement out there for elizabeth warren. today i was in concord for a rally with my sister co-chairs. it was a packed house. people are excited. i feel very sure that elizabeth warren is getting her volunteers

out and they are doing exactly what they need to do. there are still a large number of undecideds here in new hampshire. this army of volunteers, it was their job, and i am sure they performed well to -- >> undecided and late deciders. they are people going into the room who are going to make up their mind the minute they walk into the polling booth. >> exactly. >> i have to ask you about a headline that must be incredibly frustrating for your campaign, for the amy klobuchar. it says doubts persist for democrat voters about demail candidates in 2020. most said it was important for women to be running in their lifetimes but said a he if mail nominee would have a harder time beating donald trump in november. >> i would like to remind everyone that in 2018 it is women who won back the u.s. house of representatives. i am one of a class of an historic number of women who came into congress in 2018. we decided to run. we won.

and now we are the majority this. myth about women not being able to win, i think it is just that. we need to make sure we are getting out there and supporting the best candidate n. my case it is elizabeth warren. >> when you look at the numbers, is that myth hurting her? >> it likely is, why is why we are out there, a army of volunteers going out there and saying elizabeth warren can win. she won her nomination for u.s. senate against an incumbent male republican. she can do this. she can do it. once she does we will put the myth of women can't get elected aside. but yes, we need to -- as a country, we have -- we vogt for the best candidate. that's elizabeth warren. and we are all going to make sure -- nobody is done working yet. we have until tuesday. we are going to make sure that we are out there letting people know that yes she can win. >> the argument we have heard from the warren campaign in the

last few weeks is she is poised to be the unity candidate, right. >> absolutely. >> she can take all the enthusiasm that's coming from progressives and she can also bring in the more moderate voters who are concerned about a sanders candidacy. does that though require a long tail? does that say you two fight it out, and then i will be here when everyone realizes that we me to have it both ways? >> look, elizabeth warren, i -- i endorsed her campaign last summer because i know she's the best candidate. she is a tested candidate. she is working super hard. and she's got the support right here in new hampshire behind her. she's been here for over a year. i want to wait until tuesday night when the results from the election come in, quite frankly. i don't think we should be counting her out right now. i think she can win. >> all right congresswoman thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. she got a bounce from the new hampshire debate.

now amy klobuchar is trying to turn that momentum into votes on tuesday. we will talk with her campaign manager. plus, it's kitchen table politics, the new hampshire couple that's been hosting dinner parties for candidates for 16 years. they gave us their impressions of this year's contenders.

do you have concerns about mild memory loss related to aging? prevagen is the number one pharmacist-recommended memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life.

tthe bad news? ouyour patience might not.ay. depend® fit-flex underwear offers your best comfort and protection guaranteed. because, perfect or not, life's better when you're in it. be there with depend®. ♪ ♪ ♪

everything your trip needs for everyone you love. expedia.

klobuchar gaining momentum in new hampshire. since friday's debate the senator is polling 9% among registered voters. a three-point gain. her campaign says they have raised over $2.5 million in the last two days. let's bring in nbc news road warrior alley vitale who is covering klobuchar in nashua. are you seeing that momentum on the ground? >> yeah, alicia, i am not one to talk about klobomentum, but

after the tuesday night debate performance she came on strong. it is clearly something she is trying to capitalize with on the ground. we know she got the money bump off of that and polling bumps because of that. last event i was at with her just a few hours ago in manchester was the biggest one she had ever had in the state. standing here in this high school gym it is packed. i would estimate 1,000 here. she may have set a new record. a lot of voters are deciding. here in new hampshire people like to see the candidates, they like to kick the tires, see what the folks are about. now it is decision season. i am getting the sense voters are doing that just like this one man who i spoke to in manchester who seems to be deciding between klobuchar and another familiar face in this field. listen to what he told me. >> i am a biden supporter, but i have been a little disappointed at the energy and the turnout around his events. so i am -- i am not -- i haven't

backed off of voting for him but i would say she's probably my number two. >> and the fact she is the number two, this is not iowa. there is not extra points for second choices or anything like that but i have begun to see voters who are increasingly undecided, some of them saying that with biden faltering out of iowa it is sort of making them reassess their options. amy klobuchar is here to pick up those kinds of voters. yesterday i made a real world joke but the point was clear, the polite part this primary is definitely over. you are seeing the candidates differentiate themselves from each other. some more stren youszly than others. joe biden is going after pete buttegeig, pete buttegeig is going after bernie sanders. what amy klobuchar is here saying if you don't want to vote for joe biden and if you don't want to vote for pete buttegeig i am here in the moderate lane. i hear you and i want to be your candidate in this race. that's the pitch i heard her make a few times this weekend. voters are definitely listening especially when you consider the

fact that in a new cbs poll only 39% of people said they are definitely decided on who to vote for. new hampshire can go any number of ways. bernie is playing defense from his 2016 lead. when you look at the fact that independents can vote in this primary they may skew more moderate. it could be got for klobuchar who is trying to ride the momentum here on the ground. >> nbc news road warrior ali vitali in nashua. let's bring in justin bowen, the campaign manager for amy klobuchar. i want to pick up exactly where ali just left off, right, which is there is this moderate lane. it is very clear the case that your campaign is making the contrast point between the senator and mayor buttegeig, right. >> right. >> that's about experience. what is the contest point with vice president biden. >> i think the contrast point is we can bring everyone in across the country and win. amy has a proven track record of doing it. she did it in every race she has been in in minnesota.

we have won in every district. she is the only candidate on the stage who has won in a swing stage. >> the vice president says i was subpoena. >> he was run with barack obama. what amy did was won 42 trump counties in minnesota's last cycle. she has the momentum here. i think that's going to put her over the top. >> there is the question of being able to persuade a president trump voter to vote for a democrat. but there is also the question of being able to motivate the democratic base which is an increasingly diverse space. does she have the experience? has she proven think bring in latino and african-american voters nmpl the state where they know her best n minnesota she has won 98% of democrats. we have some way to go with african-americans and la teepo voters in some of the other states. we came into the race with a disadvantage in not having the

same level of name i.d. but she is delivering her case to the voters. when we get to states further down the calendar we will see those numbers improve. >> you don't have the name identity and don't have the same cash. >> we have had a great 48 hours. we raised $3 million since the debate. >> three is the new number? >> the new number. we have a number of the super tuesday states. we built the campaign to last and to go the distance. i think we have been strategic about spending early on so we could be in a place the strike now. >> the senator often says her policies don't fit on bumper sticker right? >> yeah. >> there is clearly enthusiasm for her pragmatism there is clearly a part of the democratic base that is fired up that wants to see radical change. what becomes her message to that segment? >> i think the radical change people want to see is getting rid of donald trump. she has the best message, the record and can actually get it done. i think that's what's going to

carry the day. >> there is a piece of it that's about donald trump? >> sure. >> i think you have to concede there is a piece of it that is about radical structural economic change that has nothing do with donald trump. >> sure. and amy has big ideas and proposals that are going the make a huge difference. but the position between our positions and some of the other candidates in the campaign she can actually get stuff done. she has a record of passing bills into law. if you can't get any of this doesn done it doesn't matter if you have got positions or not. >> a lot of voters are going to decide at the very last minute. i am sure that's both exciting and maddening. how do you capitalize on that reality? >> one of the advantages of having momentum, i think you have seen it in the polls every night, is that people make their decision, they are with amy and they are not leaving. one of the downsides of being a front-runner early on is that those folks can go away. i think we like where we are at and we are going to have a

strong night. >> representative holland was talking about the warren campaign. it applies to you as well. there is anxiety among voters that a woman candidate simply cannot beat donald trump. we know that not to be the case, yet the anxiety persists. >> yeah. >> how do you face that in a general election? >> i would say look at amy's debate performances and think about her up against donald trump on the debate stage. i would also stay underestimate her at your own peril. i think she's got what it is going to take to take on donald trump. >> underestimate me at your own peril, a better t-shirt than klobmentum. >> both good. >> thank you for joining us. joe biden says he took a gut punch in iowa. does he need a big night on tuesday to get up off the mat? we will talk to a congresswoman who is campaigning for the former vice president about what

they are doing to bounce back. they are doing to bounce back. that's because your home is filled with soft surfaces that trap odors and release them back into the room. so try febreze fabric refresher. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics and cleans them away as it dries. use febreze every time you tidy up, to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. make febreze part of your clean routine for full home freshness. la la la la la

with our moving and storage solutions. pack what you want, we store it for as long as you want. then, we deliver it where you want, so whether you need to move or store your things, pods is here to help you with flexible moving and storage solutions.

so whether you need to move or store your things, the united i liexplorer card. makes things easy. traveling lighter. taking a shortcut. woooo! taking a breather. rewarded! learn more at the explorer card dot com.

only a few more days before voters in new hampshire cast their ballots. the vote here could be even more important this year after the iowa caucuses failed to deliver a clear-cut winner. here's nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki. >> well, here we are. it's the middle of winter. every four years, 2020, another new hampshire primary is upon

us. exeter, new hampshire right there. phillips exeter academy. one of those snow covered scenes you will be seeing a lot of in the next two days. the homestretch to the new hampshire primary. of course the question, what does the new hampshire primary mean? how important is it going to be when it come to determining who the democratic nominee for president is? let's look at the recent track record here in new hampshire. remember, we are coming off the iowa caucuses. this year it is change because we didn't get that clean winner of the iowa caucuses on caucus night. it looks like essentially a dead heat between two candidates. in 2016, iowa went toic had. in 2016, bernie sanders won new hampshire big time. it was hillary clinton who was the nominee. ng have a, iowa, i guess you could say when it came to picking the 2016 nominee. how about 2008? barack obama won iowa. that was a big win for him.

hillary clinton, this was a big surprise. the polls had obama up. but on primary night, hillary clinton won new hampshire buy three points. in that year, obama got the nomination. iowa is 2-0 here. new hampshire, her in trouble. 2004. kerry got iowa, kerry got much in, and the nomination. everything matched up in 2000, the same thing happened, al gore. new hampshire i have good news for you. you have an opportunity because iowa was a mismess. we don't have a clean leader out of iowa. buttegeig says he won. sanders says he won. we are not sure we are going to know with 100% certainty. new hampshire democratic voters here is your challenge, pick one single solitary winner on tuesday f. that candidate goes on to be the democratic nominee then you have got one on iowa for the first time this century.

>> steve thank you so much. as the race to the new hampshire primary becomes increasingly more fluid former vice president joe biden is admitting that a win in the granite state might be an uphill battle. according to morning consult, surveys conducted last week, biden is still virtually tied with sanders nationally. with just one more day until the primary where does the biden campaign go from here. joining me, chrissy hewell began, a surrogate for joe biden. thank you so much congresswoman for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> biden has already called iowa a gut punch. by saying new hampshire may be an uphill battle, is he conceding that he is not prepared to win here? >> i think this is an important thing to think about as more than just a sprint but a marathon. before running for congress, i was a distance runner. the analogy i can come up with is there are 1990 delegates that need to be won in order for people to be the nominee.

even after new hampshire is over, only 2% of that will be decided. in the analogy of a marathon we are not deciding within the first half mile who it is who is going the finish first. we need to make sure we allow the entire process to unroll. i believe the vice president is competitive. and that's important right now. >> do you have the money to run a marathon? >> i obviously hope so. i think that's the plan. the plan is to make sure we finish and finish competitively in this opportunity. then we have got south carolina, nevada. frankly we have to have pennsylvania as part of that solution. michigan and wisconsin. those are the places where it really really matters. those are the places where we absolutely have to win regardfuls who the candidate is, our -- regardless of who the candidate is. >> i am always struck watching the vice president on the debate stage. his running on his record. and he is very good at talking about the past. yet i find that i rarely hear a strong pivot to the future.

and what his vision is for a future under a president biden. can you articulate to me what that is? >> sure for me the future is restoring our position in the world. i think the last three years has been a gut punch to america. we have ended up with being undermined, undervalued by our current administration. and we really need to from day one be rebuilding and restoring the faith of our people and ourselves and also restoring the faith of the world in america. and i think that's the vision the future. i serve on the armed services and foreign affairs committee. one thing i hear not just international but also in my own community is we really need to get back onto the world stage. >> there is the international relations page. most people agree that's important. there are also domestic questions firing up the democratic base, economic questions, health care questions, immigration questions. what are his answers there? >> we think health care is issue number one, issue number two,

and issue number three. in pennsylvania the vast majority of us would like to see us build on the fact, part of the obama and biden legacy and continue to shore that up and improve on it. also ensuring a public option that rides alongside is something that the vast majority of pennsylvanians have a vision for. >> there was a "washington post" op ed from the co-chair of the congressional front line program that raises funds the reelect democrats speaking about the lebltability of democrats in local districts writing if bernie sanders is our nominee it will make a lot of the trump districts we picked up extremely competitive and probably does put our house majority in jeopardy. as someone who has flipped a congressional district when voters go to the polls how much should they be thinking about who going to be the nominee but how much it affects the down races. >> i need people to think about

the race weiss worked so hard for. i am one of those people. i serve in a district that for 160 years has been held by a republican. we need to make sure we continue to maintain the majority we worked so hard for. not just maintain it but continue to grow what it is that we stand for. i would ask you, here in new hampshire, consider very much who would happen as we get the other parts of the country, philadelphia, when we get to wisconsin when we get to those places that sadly at 9:30 at night turned red. that's why i am sitting here right now. we want to ensure we are able to turn those places blue. >> thank you. all right. we will continue our coverage. still ahead, guess who is coming to dinner? i will talk to the new hampshire couple who has hosted nearly a dozen presidential hopefuls in their home just this cycle. they will tell me which democrats are getting the most buzz next on msnbc. ♪

it's velveeta shells & cheese versus the other guys. ♪ clearly, velveeta melts creamier. the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps.

americans come to lendingtree.com to compare and save on loans, credit cards and more! but with the new lending tree app you can see your full financial health, monitor your credit score, see your cash flow and find out how you can cut your monthly bills. download it

now to see how much you can save. what if to your house for breakfast? that's exactly what happened to

my next guest. this new hampshire couple hosted 11 presidential candidates at their home for breakfast and dinners this year. the house party is a political tradition as candidates try to meet voters face to face. joining me now, jerry and ron king from concord, new hampshire. this sounds like so much fun. if anyone came to my house for breakfast, there would be complete chaos. how did this tradition get started? >> good question. howard dean came when he ran. barack obama was there when he ran and we've had 12 candidates in the last 12 months. >> was this your idea or they showed up and demanded a meal? >> no, they called. >> we don't call them. they call us. we say, sure. up to 120 people. we have to move furniture out of the living room. >> i get anxious hosting my in-laws for a meal. what is it like hosting presidential candidates? >> ron does most of the baking? >> there's really no difference. as jerry said, if you are going

to clean the bathroom for one person, it doesn't matter how many people come over. >> you have hosted up to 120 people. >> right. >> a lot of people. who has had the biggest turnout this year? >> castro. >> castro, cory booker. buttigieg. >> buttigieg was in the morning on a friday at 10:30 and cory booker, six daze day's notice. >> 11 candidates. >> yes. >> just this year alone. bought again, tom steyer, duvall patrick, michael bennett. the candidates still in the race. what were your impressions of them? >> every one is different obviously, but the neat thing about new hampshire, as you get to see in closeup, and you get to ask them a lot of very difficult questions and things that people can't do from the stage or on the stage. it's a whole different kind of experience. you breathe the same air as they breathe. you can sort of see all of their facial expressions and everything else. it's fascinating.

>> well, i was going to say, as a result, usually i'm canvassing for people this weekend. i haven't decided. >> you were one of them. the mythical has not made up your mind voter. >> the highest percentage ever. >> is that because you are truly torn or because you have not figured out the electability collection? >> i describe them as together they are one perfect person. many things that i like about all of them. so i still -- i'm shocked at myself truly. people, my friends can't believe that we haven't decided. >> have your friends made up their minds? >> a lot of them haven't. >> and it's the same challenge. >> same challenge. >> how about for you? >> same thing. i've narrowed it down to two or three people. >> will you let me know who they are? >> no. >> okay. >> it's interesting. by now we've made up our minds. people are calling us, who are we going to vote for? this year that's not the case. so i have narrowed it down a

bit, but it's still -- it's still -- i still think i'm going to go into the booth, pull the curtain aside and i'm going to make up my mind there. anyone have terrible table manners that i need to know about? >> i don't think of a single soul. >> they're all kind. they're all generous. really sweet up close. >> that sometimes gets lost when you're just watching them on the tv stage. >> it does. >> that is one i thing i would ask you about is when you have proximity to these candidates, when you're able to interact with them as people, how does that change the equation? >> a lot. >> a lot. i mean, ron's response that he thought he had narrowed it down, we had more candidates. his response was, dammit, now there are more people. you cook for all the candidates yourself? >> yes. >> anything interesting? >> the only one that had an issue with food was core re. >> because he's vegan. >> vegan. >> i'm sure he's a gracious

vegan. >> he was. he was very good. we took him down to one of our favorite places and we called the cook ahead and said he was vegan. >> you had the obamas back in 2007. what was that like then after he became president? >> oh, extraordinary. we went to both inaugurations. the most exciting moment was when he accepted the nomination in chicago. he said i started in a living room in concord. we had no idea we were the only living room because he became so popular so living. >> jerry and ron king. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> welcome back to that. >> so am i. that's all the time i have for today but we are not done from new hampshire. ca kasie hunt and her team are here. she has senator michael bennett. i will be on "morning joe" at 6 a.m. eastern. stay with msnbc for live coverage throughout the day.

chris, ari melber and company will be here. join us at the penstock in downtown manchester at 11 a.m. eastern. the reverend al sharpton and "politics nation" at the top of the hour. ur liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. i love you! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ looking to repair dry, damaged hair without weighing it down? try pantene daily moisture renewal conditioner. its color-safe formula uses smart conditioners to micro-target damage helping to repair hair without weighing it down. try pantene. that's ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. it's a sit-up, banana! bend at the waist! i'm tryin'! keep it up. you'll get there. whoa-hoa-hoa!

30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. ensure max protein.

and one gram of sugar. when youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. so you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. for small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. shop everything home at wayfair.com