let's head out to our washington dc news room and mark meridith. all right mark. we had 17 on the stage for a while, we are down to five. so what do you think? >> reporter: we have five people on stage. you can imagine, there will be a lot of attention focused on marco rubio. you also see john kasich and ben carson on the stage but the rhetoric between the two, we are talking between cruz and trump, has gotten so nasty just within this past week, trump on the stump calling cruz crazy to loud it is interesting. when you are talking about a race like this, this is for your own party. this is not going against democrats in the fall. now. will be like with all of this on the line. there are 12 states voting next tuesday. so for these candidates they realize this is a make or break moment for them. >> also i see donald trump firing off the campaign trail. you have the mexican president fox using strong words when asked if they will pay the bill for the wall trump is talking about. you have mitt romney tweeting about a bomb shell in trump's taxes. how is hayraking to al

with a look at where things stand, let's get to mark meridith. mark, on a day marco rubio planned to grab all the headlines for his aggressive debate performance, along comes donald trump to trump the field again with today's christie endorsement. so much for everyone in the republican establishment getting behind rubio. what's going on? >> reporter: well, that's a great point. that is exactly what the idea behind last night's debate performance was. it was to try to shift the attention. put donald trump on offense. put him on defense. and now, it is the rubio campaign that is really trying to get back to where they were hoping to be today. because as we were talking about, chris christie, a former presidential candidate himself, governor of new jersey, well respected in the republican party. now, throwing his weight behind donald trump. >> i'm the only one. >> reporter: a slug fest on stage. thursday's final republican felt more like donald trump versus everyone else. >> if you build the wall the way he built trump tower, you will use illegal lab

let's get right to our washington bureau mark meridith. bernie sanders is riding a wave of popularity. saturday night live. and the success of new hampshire. but tonight, he is back in business and hillary clinton is ready to go. >> reporter: you are right about that. probably not too many last night like we saw on saturday night live. there will be a debate on pbs. it comes days after that decisive victory we saw in new hampshire for bernie sanders. but the battle is far from over. hillary clinton today giving an endorsement from leaders of the congressional black caucus. this is important because it will be part of her strategy going forward to try to attract minority and younger voters. it was amazing to see how many you would associate going with the clinton campaign deciding to instead back bernie sanders. this is certainly good news for sanders' campaign. while the clintons have tried to adjust their strategy, tonight's debate will be interesting to watch if we see anything different on the stage from bernie sanders as well. but toda

newschannel8's mark meridith joins us live in dc with a look at where things stand. in new hampshire, we always get a little news when the debates come around. we have a big one tonight between hillary clinton and bernie sanders. >> reporter: you are right about that one. it was amazing we saw all the times before there were three candidates on stage. this time, it is hillary versus bernie. there was a town hall last night. that was a separate event. now, there is no chance to escape the donkey in the room. everyone will want to know after new hampshire, what does race? but of course, it is not just the democrats in a close seat, republicans are neck and neck as well. >> bernie, bernie, bernie. >> reporter: facing great expectations, vermont senator bernie sanders making every effort to win new hampshire's primary. but victory doesn't come easy. to win, he is sharpening his attacks on hillary clinton. >> i do not know any progressive who has a superpac and takes $15 million from wall street. after squeaking out the narrowest of wins in iowa, clinton is looking past n

let's head to our washington and our dc bureau reporter mark meridith for an update. >> reporter: good evening to you keith. this is the home stretch for the candidates. two states, two different coasts but it really comes down to how much they can get out the vote. let's look at where the democratic race stands. there was the town hall on msnbc last night. it is hard to tell if it shifted opinions but clinton and sanders have been neck and neck. she was up or down by one percentage point well within the margin of error. nevada is one of those interesting states because it will be geared more toward the latino vote compared to south carolina a week from now. so clinton really trying to get the stuff where she had a firewall. that is kind of the campaign turn she didn't think there was any chance bernie sanders would get in her way. but as we look at the latest polls it is neck and neck. it is anybody's guess who will come out ahead tomorrow. >> i'm sure hillary clinton will be anxious to get past nevada and then to south the firewall for her. but, let's switch gears a little bit. donal