kristen welker reporting. as republicans get ready for their debate this weekend, john kasich is taking his upbeat sets today. his first ad shows him as a agenda and talks about his father. he focuses on god and aims at south carolina's evangelical his second ad focuses on the in his first 100 days if he were elected president. he vows he will cut taxes, enforce a balanced budget, and secure the in new hampshire, and hopes these ads will propel him to the number one spot in south carolina. the south carolina republican primary is february 20th. at noon. most of us have heard of hospice, but maybe not this program in iowa's prisons. how it's providing inmates death with dignity even when they say they don't deserve it. plus.. a quick courtship led to a life time of happiness. hear this couple's advice for long lasting love as we head into valentine's day weekend. "i've got to get out and get a card. i better unless i can surf, stream, download, and play on multiple devices at once, with centurylink internet. ge

nbc's kristen welker has details. >> reporter: as hillary clinton and bernie sanders prepare to face off in milwaukee tonight, there are already fireworks. >> there's no one else better to be prepared to be president of the united states of america than hillary clinton. influential political arm backing clinton today. it was congressman john lewis who delivered a major blow to sanders, questioning how active he was in the civil rights movement. >> i never saw him.

nbc's kristen welker with us on the phone. kristen, can you hear me? sounds like we're having some technical difficulty with crist p right now. kristen welker has been with hillary clinton and the clinton campaign. there were four events. bill clinton also speaking at an event earlier today. this part of an event that begins tomorrow at about 22 hours, at 8:00 p.m. eastern time, 7:00 p.m. local time. kristen welker i believe is with us now on the phone and can hear us. kristen, you were there at this event. how was this get out the caucus today? how is it different from the other events today? >> reporter: good evening, richard. hillary clinton wrapping up her final campaign event before tomorrow's big caucuses. again, she was joined by former president bill clinton, her daughter chelsea clinton. we know that charlotte is here in iowa. this is a family affair, as they head into the final hours. richar richard -- [ inaudible ] -- the largest iowa crowd she has had yet. she talked about a range of her proposals, from wall street, to health care, the econ

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we've got both sides covered starting with nbc's kristen welker. kristen, what are you hearing from the clinton campaign tonight? >> reporter: lester, good evening. clinton campaign officials tell me they are feeling confident tonight. still, they are bracing for a memories of clinton's defeat in 2008 are still very fresh, still after holding more than 100 events, her aides say she's determined to make history. hillary clinton in the fight of her political life, hitting the ground one last time today after months of relentless campaigning. >> i hope you'll stand up for me. i hope you will fight for me. >> reporter: today an army of volunteers making a final push caucus-goers on this college campus, a group clinton has struggled to win over but the key to winning iowa. >> we're just trying to get as express their views. >> reporter: it was not supposed to be this way. clinton began the race last april with a 40-point lead here. >> hi, everybody. >> reporter: hand now she's neck and neck with bernie sanders, her campaign sidetracked by the e-mails. >>

nbc's kristen welker is in iowa with more. >> reporter: it's the home stretch. hillary clinton and bernie sanders blanketing iowa, a fight for the number one spot in a finish. >> monday niet ght could be a historic night for this country. we can make history. >> let's start a storm of a future we make together. >> reporter: just hours before clinton and sanders in a dead 42% to 45% in the polling. teams of volunteers and organizers knocking on doors one last time making sure every supporter knows two things, where their caucus location is and how they'll get there. and the clinton campaign allowing nbc aen exclusive lieu at their specially developed app which is like a caucus night calculator. >> it allows us to stream our process and allow our precinct processes. they're spending less time persuading. >> the clinton campaign anticipated 125,000 doors knocked alone. sanders' ground team equally impressive, 76,000 door knocks, 15,000 volunteers. clinton still playing defense like when she was secretary of state. of the timing and leaks that lead led up to it are

nbc's kristen welker is with the clinton campaign in virginia. kristen, what can you tell us. >> reporter: lester, good evening. clinton campaign officials say they feel confident heeding into super tuesday after that big win in south carolina, fueled african-american support. build on that tomorrow. senator sanders vowing not to give up, but he does have a steep climb, particularly if you look at the the official nbc news delegate count shows clinton with 519 delegates and sanders with 86. if you only take into account super delegates, typically party leaders who get to choose who they will support, clinton gets 428 to sanders 21, a 20-field advantage. clinton is up with ads in all of the super tuesday states and sanders with ads in five of them, smaller, less diverse states li corond massachusetts. still, sanders has a lot of cash on hand which means no matter what happens tomorrow that could allow him to stay in this race indefinitely. lester? >> kristen welker tonight, thank you. >>> for many of you the stations will be carrying the live hour-

we get more on that tonight from kristen welker. >> reporter: hillary clinton riding a wave of fresh momentum. >> is this a great night or what? >> reporter: after a decisive >> some may have doubted us, aboutbut we never doubted each other. >> reporter: to bernie sanders, the loss is a big blow, today courting african-american voters at a baptist church in south carolina. >> reporter: and it was black voters who largely delivered clpt's victory, choosing her by a chopping 76% to 22% after she aggressively engaged them. and rallying with congressman jim clyburn and morgan freeman, who released a new ad today. >> just like she's always stood with us. >> reporter: secretary clinton's embrace of president obama's policies as well as her increasingly up close and personal style may have also propelled her, evident during the nsnbc telemundo town hall, speaking to a woman who's husband had been deported. >> i want to tell you i will end the three and ten-year bar provision so that you do not >> reporter: but there were also obstacles she must overcome. latinos chose sanders by single digi

we get more on the democrats from kristen welker. >> reporter: with two days until the new hampshire primary, secretary clinton taking a detour today to a baptist church in largely african-american flint, michigan, impacted by a toxic water crisis. >> this is not nearly though it is both. what happened in flint is immoral. >> reporter: clinton's visit designed to resonate with her base in key states like south carolina. critical if she loses new hampshire. but the clintons aren't giving up on the granite state. volunteers are going door to door. her surrogate in chief, former president bill clinton, reminiscing about the state where he famously dubbed himsel catapult him to the presidency. >> this is 1992 on steroids. you need to respond on steroids, and you'll never regret it. >> reporter: hillary sanders in the state, including among women, and clinton on the attack, trying to paint sanders as week on foreign policy. >> there really isn't any kind of foreign policy network that is supporting and advising senator sanders. >> reporter: sanders firing back on the trail in new hampshir

i think it's just a real problem for bernie sanders. >> that was nbc's kristen welker. >>> the latest in the standoff between apple and the fbi over apple's refusal to help investigators gain access to the i phone of one of the san bernardino shooters. last night fbi director james comey released a statement defending his agency's request saying, "we simply want the chance with a search warrant to try to guess the terrorist's pass code without the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a decade to guess correctly. that's it. we don't want to break anyone's encryption or set a mooster key loose on the land. maybe the phone holds the clue to finding more terrorists. maybe it doesn't. but we can't look the survivors in the eye or ourselves in the mirror if we don't follow this lead." apple said bite not comply with a court order to help data on the phone, arguing it would endanger the privacy of millions of its customers. >>> reuters is reporting some victims of the december 2nd attack plan to file a legal brief in support of the government's request. 14 people were kil

i have to get back to kristen welker. she's live from the hillary clinton campaign event in derry, new hampshire. i believe we're listening in right now. let's take a listen. >> make it clear that there are a lot of big, powerful interests in our country. that we have to take on. but we cannot ignore the overwhelming power of the gun lobby, what they do to intimidate elected officials, and the agenda that gabby and mark have laid out, that i have endorsed. really is a commonsense one for comprehensive background checks and closing loopholes, ending the unprecedented immunity from liability for gun makers and sellers. making sure people on the no-fly list don't get to buy guns in america. and 92% of americans support this. 85% of gun owners support this. this is a big difference in this campaign because as mark said, i have been standing up relentlessly, calling out the gun lobby and doing what i can to penetrate the fear, the acquiescence, the intimidation that too many elected officials feel. in the face of their threate

kristen welker has more. >> reporter: secretary clinton is ramping up her outreach to black voters on the south side of chicago today. >> to make sure that no other young woman like sandra bland is ever pulled out of a car for no good reason and thrown into a jail where she is found dead. >> reporter: sandra bland's mother by her said less than a year after her daughter was found dead in a texas jail. this as a new poll shows clinton and sanders now deadlocked in nevada. her double-digit lead in october evaporating to just a single point. senator sanders, who is struggling to win over minorities, making his case at a rally in atlanta last night. but the headline came from rapper killer mike, quoting educator and activist jay elliott. >> qualifies you to be the president of the united states. >> reporter: sparking a backlash on twitter. the accusations of sexism giving the clinton campaign an opening. >> there's another way to make that point without necessarily offending people. >> what mike was trying to say in his way is people have got to vote for the candidate they think is the be

. >>> i'm kristen welker. in portsmouth, hillary clinton taking her new hampshire campaign into her own hands today, going door to door, trying to come back from a double digit deficit. >> it's a beautiful day in manchester. >> reporter: with the clinton machine kicking into high gear, out in force volunteers from all across the country and state. >> knock on the side door, the garage. find a person inside the house. >> reporter: appearing on stage, a top surrogate with one of her familiar lines. >> there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other. >> reporter: the tough talk comes with clinton trailing sanders even among women. in an exclusive interview, former secretary of state madeleine albright said she's on a mission to rally women voters. why is she struggling with women voters in new hampshire? this is her base. >> they need to know that she is -- has worked so hard on everything. women's issues. >> reporter: she slammed sanders for seeming to struggle on foreign policy. >> north kor