when we come back, philip rucker and kathie obradovich.ohn: joining us now are phil rucker, correspondent for "the washington post," and cap you brad lidge of -- kathie obradovich of "the des moines register." want to talk about the democratic race, leading to phil's at a store, but give us a sense of where things stand between hillary clinton and bernie sanders. kathie: i don't think it could possibly be any closer. apartre couple points and people are still making up their minds. everything is going to matter. do endorsements matter? usually they don't, but this town hall tonight, no one can afford to make a step out of line. john: you don't dispute the notion, though, that there is a large and easy as some gap between the sanders -- enthusiasm gap between the sanders forces and clinton forces? which may not be decisive, but there is a gap. weatherif we have bad and some people think, oh, well, i don't need to go -- but in a close race everybody gets enthusiastic and everybody thinks that their vote matters. john: phil, you have a piece

john: philip rucker, kathie obradovich -- i love saying that -- thank you so much.ill be back again this week. coming up, the dilemma facing establishment candidates in new hampshire. don't forget, if you're watching us in washington, d.c., you can listen to us, too on 99.1 fm. we will be right back. ♪ mark: this week was the second episode of our new show on showtime, "the circus." the show is on every sunday at 8:00. it was called the prisoner's dilemma about the challenge facing the establishment republicans in new hampshire. this features chris christie, marco rubio, john kasich and jeb bush. >> a granite state hello to all of you. what have you learned that you did not know before? >> why are you not going at trump? chris christie: i'm getting political advice from donny deutsch. the only thing i would do with donny deutsch is a murder suicide pact. john: does that feel risky? is it do or die? chris christie: i think the whole thing is risky. rubio seems to put no eggs in any basket. what decision you make, the whole enterprise is inherently risky. you have to

fill philip rucker, thank you so much in manchester, new hampshire. >>> the republican front-runner donaldy in an interview today with my colleague wolf blitzer. do not miss it. just a couple of short hours from now, 5:00 eastern with wolf in "the situation room". >>> next, let's pivot to north korea. did this nation just detonate an h-bomb, hydrogen bomb? the world reacting after the leader kim jong-un claimed his regime successfully tested an h h-bomb. if it wasn't an h-bomb? what was it and why? >>> president obama is pushing for more smart guns in his executive actions. what are they? how would they work? we'll get a demonstration. and as many americans become obsess with this new documentary on a chilling murder case, nancy grace is flipping the popular opinion. hear why she says she is in absolute shock over the series entitled "making a murderer." >>> breaking news. north korea is claiming it has, quote, successfully detonated its first hydrogen bomb. we have pictures here. these is south korea watching news reports on this test. if true, it this would be the most powerful warhead k