ted krutz is nipping at his heels while marco rubio is hoping he will do so well that he will be able to drive john kasich and jeb bush out of the rails to become the sole main stream republican candidate. right now it's look like a tight battle for the democrats in nevada tomorrow. hillary clinton is currently leading bernie sanders by two points. today sanders said he wants democracy to flourish and he hopes to win. while clinton got a major endorsement from south carolina's top democrat. so exactly what's at stake. chuck todd will break it all down for us on "nbc nightly news", that's with lester holt after this newscast. >> in washington people have been lining up to pay final respects to supreme court justice antonin scalia. president obama and first lady michelle bowed their heads in prayer at the great hall of the supreme court late this afternoon. vice president biden and his wife jill are expected to attend the funeral mass tomorrow. a live look at the viewing. scalia's former law clerks taking turn standing vigil. the justice died saturday in texas. he was 79. >> relief and

and ted krutz is responding as well.mentator van jones who served in the obama administration. john avlon, also editor and chief of daily beast. cnn political contributor and republican commentator. welcome to all of you, and let me read this. this is the headline. this is from team trump. trump responds to the lies of cruz. called him a basket case, unstable, questioning his faith again, his christianity. said he never met a person who lies more than ted cruz. let me read -- graphs. this is a lengthy letter. ted cruz is a totally unstable idividual. he is the single biggest liar i have ever come across in politics or otherwise and i've seen some of the best of them. his statements are totally untrue and outrageous. it's hard to believe a person who proclaims to be a christian could lie so much. he goes through in this letter about what cruz is saying on trump being pro choice and obamacare and second amendment rights and voter fraud violation of dr. carson he says in iowa. it culminates with this graph, if i may. one of

>> overall it's good news for ted krutz, but catholiced and christians take the comments seriously, i think it might mean that the republicans are going to have trouble with hardline immigration policies that they have been talking about. the pope is asking us to treat immigrants as human beings and not just as scapegoats like the republican policies often have been doing. >> let's talk about the democratic candidates now they take the stage in las vegas for a town hall on msnbc. what should we be watching for? >> i think what we're going to see is a lot more of clinton trying to show her credentials. she has an edge in the polls in terms of foreign policy, in terms of immigration and particularly race relations. nevada is an interesting state, our first more diverse state so we get a sense of how voters beyond the white voters might feel about a presidential candidate. it's harder in nevada. it's a caucus, not a primary. it's less representative. i'm looking and especially ahead to south carolina to see how hispanic and how black voters are going to respond to both bernie and hillary

. >> marco rubio who watched his numbers pick up recently is in second place, ted krutz, john kasich and jeb bush follow, christie, carly fiorina and ben carson in single digits. for bernie sanders lead over hillary clinton is down, slightly, based on previous polls but he still holds a double digit advantage. >> what people will be asking is not just who wins but whether the people of new hampshire are prepared to lead this country in a political revolution. >> some of hillary clinton's supporters took heat for suggesting that women aren't serious about electing the first woman president. former secretary of state madeleine albright said there is a, quote, special place in hell for women who don't help women. >> back now to these live pictures, this is the verizon arena in manchester, new hampshire. you're looking at supporters of donald trump who have been lining up outside in the snow since at least 2:45 this afternoon, ahead of an event at 7:00 tonight. we know supporters for many of the candidates have been doing door-to-door canvassing trying to sway those final few undecided v

this is something that does play well to ted krutz portfolio in new hampshire particularly, you know,hris christie plays up a lot of the law and order stuff. so i think you're seeing the republican party come around to being the safe party of security that will make america safe again. >> very quickly who won that democratic town hall last night? >> i think they both did really well. senator, secretary, first lady clinton, she's the one who i think established herself as variety of things.s ideas for a- and i think democrats are looking for somebody who can win and govern the country. they like bernie sanders a lot. i feel like it's a little bit of a gentleman's intermission. people know they're going to be with hillary at the end but they're taking a time-out. >> i do find bernie sanders critique of hillary clinton on foreign policy very compelling. i am stunned in the debate last night she still can't answer for her vote for the iraq war in a smooth way. she doesn't answer the question for why she took all this money from goldman sachs in a smooth way. she had to see these coming an

he is linking rubio to president obama on immigration, even though krutz today had to pull this fake photo of the two. >> this guy ted cruz is really a liar, i'll tell you what. >> reporter: donald trump's once big lead over cruz is down to 5 in today's nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. >> running for president it takes guts. especially, i have never done this before. takes guts. takes guts. >> reporter: and showmanship. the candidate who would ban muslims from entering the u.s. looks set to win another primary. >>> tomorrow the democrats will also face off, hillary clinton and bernie sanders will compete in nevada's democratic caucus. >> it's looking like a tight race, clinton leading by only two points right now. for more insight on the democratic primary battle we're joined by jjbalaban at the campaign group which creates television and radio ads for political campaigns, he has also served as a congressional press secretary. thanks for being with us. we want to talk to you about a poll. >> the associated press found the more democrats actually learn about bernie sanders, the more they seem to like him. so tell