Impression of what you saw from both candidates tonight. Any big news making moments . You know, i think youre right they were both it was very high energy. They were both ampd up. I also thought the kind of questioning they got, its sort of striking when you get citizen questions at town halls the level of policy detail. There are things that matter to a persons live, the five or eightyear bar on reentry which got talked about tonight, the nitty gritty of whether the debtfree college plan proposed by heavyweight would apply in equal measure to people on dacha. To the people that are living them are not granular. Theyre their whole lives. I thought they both did a pretty good job of engaging with that. You could tell there were moments for each when they were out of their depth with the person asking the question. Theyre trying to brief on 100 issues. The person asking the question says this is the issue that matters most to me. They both did a pretty good job of doing that politician thing of zooming out when they needed to me. It was striking how issue focused the questions were and how concrete what these voters were looking for was. Yes, and i to that point, thats why i pointed out we got followup questions from the questioners. People are talking about questions that derive from their own lives, they are experts on those questions and they dont suffer generalist answers easily. We got very tough followups from people in the audience, first to senator sanders and then to secretary clinton. Jon ralston, did you hear things tonight that you think would resonate with nevadans . Did these candidates pitch their message appropriately for your state . You know, rachel, i dont think we heard anything really new from either of them. I agree with chris, not only was it striking the policy detail and the emotion that some of these real people theyre not like us, theyre real people out there. You know what else they did really well is they asked great followup questions. They listened and knew the answer was not complete and they followed up which was great. To see real people with real problems in their lives things we write about or just talk about but cant experience, i thought that is what makes an atmosphere like there so great. This is what is people dont understand about Bernie Sanders. Hes a very good politician. He is very disciplined. He knows what he wants to say and how he says it. Chris is right. They both got caught off guard a couple of times. You saw Hillary Clinton with the one guy who was a sanders supporter who got two the bites at her and she got a little irritated i thought. Bernie sanders is naturally agitated so you didnt see it as much. John, let me follow you on that a little bit. Do you feel like, either of these candidates either did themselves any harm tonight talking about maybe having been caught off guard in some of the policy back and forths or taking really sharp questions from real people, did either of them do themselves any harm or did either of them really help themselves . Im not sure anything really changed the political dynamic of whats going on in this state with what happened tonight. Unless i missed i, neither of them made a significant gaffe. Theyre stuck to what theyve been saying all along. The thing that struck me because a lot of questions were about immigration tonight. Obviously were in a state now out past iowa, New Hampshire, more diverse electorate. Immigrationing is a place where there is not a huge difference between the candidates. Bernie sanders had to defend the vote against mccainkennedy in 2007. Chuck todd asked this question many times. Its an important question. To me it looms over all this, which is are you going to prioritize this . Are you going to move first on this . Because i think the people anthem have watched this fail twice now, they have watched it fail because the longer its out there, the easier it is to kill because the forces opposed to it are so organized and so indefatiguable. That is a key thing how each candidate projects their level of he enthusiasm, passion, and prime sill for that issue. I dont think theres a clear winner tonight. That is the terrain that i think well see it played on much more as we go forward. Rachel, if there was a bit of news. Go ahead, john. Im sorry. If there was a bit of news, its the prime ministry. We have not heard im going too get it done in the first 100 days before. I wonder why that would come up two days before the caucus, suddenly theres more urgency. So i think thats why that was said tonight. The fight over the latino vote here in nevada has become a pitched battle. You saw Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders right before this town hall go to a union protest, Culinary Union protest. Hillary clinton has been to the back of the house four different times in the hotels. Bernie sanders has been pulling the latin cohort away from her, latino cohoert away from her. Shes fighting for that. Suddenly its priority for the first 100 days. I dont think thats a coincidence. I was going to say even though weve seen chuck todd specifically press Hillary Clinton on that issue before, i think she did he go farther. She did go farther tonight in saying she would put it the basically in the first things she was going to do, you the it in the first 100 days. I think that is a fairly new commitment from her. John, you mentioned the culinary workers there. They played such a big role in the caucus in 2008. That was basically everything at least that the National Media focused on in terms of the organizational strength that they had in the caucuses. They are formally sitting out here. Does that mean theyre not going to be a factor on saturday or what role do you expect them to have . Its a great question. As you remember, they endorsed obama early in 2008 and they put their own personal the credibility of the union and its leaders was on the line. They went all out to get the union folks to turn out and support barack obama. The clintons went into the casinos as hillary is now mimicking now to try to divide the workers. She ended up winning. There was a record turnout for nevada. The Culinary Union is never completely on the sidelines. There were some developments today. You had the New York Times break at story that harry reid had called the leaders of the union and said encourage your work persons theres half a dozen strip sites. Theres cynicism hes trying to help Hillary Clinton because shes hurt by the union not doing what everyone thinks theyre going to do and endorse her. I dont think they can turn out Hillary Clinton voters. His message of income inequality, Economic Justice resonates with some of those culinary work persons theyre sitting it out compared to 2008 which is why people think turnout will be down from then. Theyll be active in getting workers to the polls in the casinos. Chris, as you look ahead now, this nevada race is such a pivot point for the democratic race overall. Iowa and New Hampshire have a lot going for them. Theyre very different from one another. The one thing in common is theyre really, really white compared to the rift of the country. Starting in nevada but for a lot of states thereafter, its a much more diverse electorate, latinoen an africanamerican electorate. Do you feel like heading into that portion of the contest that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have to transform themselves are they basically driving a car thats already tuned in that direction to try to appeal to, as white candidates trying to appeal to nonwhite electorates . I think they both starred making that move ahead of even getting out of iowa and New Hampshire. It has been really noticeable. Once weve been out of iowa and New Hampshire, just the power, frankly, the demographic power and Political Capital that lies in black and latina workers in the current modern Democratic Coalition even compared to 20 years ago. Barack obama has proven that you can basically lose large shares of the white vote and still be elected to a National Majority with the Obama Coalition. That cloelgs is the thing thats up for grabs right now. Its the thing Hillary Clinton thinks she can maintain to victory. This is the first test of what the Obama Coalition is going to look like in choosing between these two candidates because we have a state that is not so the blindingly white as iowa and New Hampshire. Keep in mind, weve got nevada and weve got South Carolina and three days after that, theres a huge number of states. No one can run state by campaigns there. Youve got to start looking both at the state polling but also what are those internals, what are the cross tabs lookinging in national polling,ing is Bernie Sanders particularly among africanamericans making up enough of that . Were starting to see movement there. Its not happening in South Carolina. Saturday is the first real big test of what have this electorate post obama is going to do, who they feel more comfortable with. Thats right. Everywhere from alabama to georgia to tennessee to that march 1st date is going to be a very big deal. Chris hayes, jon ralston, thank you both so much for joining us from nevada. Great to have you both on tonight. Thank you gentlemen. There were lots of great moments up close with the candidates in nevada tonight. Lots of good questions asked both by the moderators and by the people in the audience. And the audience seemed generally enthusiastic, didnt seem particularly partisan. There was some booing, some cheering. But this was kind of a fun night. Take a look. There are some democrats who want to continue the president s policies. Why should they trust you as somebody who wanted him. Somebody asked by the way, there is one of the two the Democratic Candidates here who actually ran against barack obama. It wasnt me. All right. Second of all, you know, i have worked very closely with president obama over the last seven years. He is a friend of mine. Senator sanders has also attacked president obama and called him weak, disappointing. He tried to get somebody to run against him in the 2012 election in the primary. And you know, i just dont know where all this comes from because maybe its that senator sanders wasnt really a democrat till he decided to run for president. He doesnt even know, you know, what the last two the democratic president s did. And you know, well, its true. Its true. You know its true. I mean, it happens to be true. I consider myself a strong feminist. And in fact, gloria stein ham, everybody know shes one of the leading feminists that america made me an honorary woman many, many years ago. I dont know exactly what ha meant, but i accepted it. When she came to campaign for me. Im hoping if we win back the senate and we win the white house again, the republicans are going to see the error of their ways and quit using imgroonts divide our country and quit taking the kind of meanspirited actions that they do. You know, i was the first person to call out donald trump. I said, busta, enough of this presently disand paranoiaen at kind of language that he uses. So i will doll everything i can, not only for the young people deserve the highest protection, but for their families, as well. You know, people can agree with barack obama. You can disagree with barack obama. But anybody who doesnt understand that the kind of obstructionism and hatred thrown at this man, the idea of making him a delegitimate president by suggesting he was not born in america because his dad came from kenya, no one asked me whether im a citizen or not. My father came from poland. Gee, whats the difference . Maybe the color of our skin. I understand that somebody asked senator sanders a question because her husband was in mexico. I dont know hop asked that question. And i want to tell you, i will end the three and tenyear bar provision so that you do not have to face that is ever again. There were about 350 people in the room at that town hall tonight in nevada with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Maybe its just because im a politics dork but i think that was fun and feisty. The question though is, other than fun and feisty, is it important, is it going to shift the race . Joining us now from las vegas is university of texas professor and contributor victoria defrancesco and maria kumer. Victoria, you were in the audience tonight. What were your top line impressions how these twos candidates did . It was a lot of fun, rachel. Obviously, the issue of immigration was at the forefront. I think they did very well in underlining their support for comprehensive Immigration Reform. However, one thing that i did not see and i want to see more of is what happens if they dont get citizenship . Will they accept legal status because we know from surveys of the latino population that latinos want to come out of the shadows. If they have to pick staying in the shadows and taking a legal legal path without citizenship, the latino majority says well take the legal path. I didnt see that nuance. Im hoping as we go into super tuesday and into texas, we drill more into the details because theyre both for comprehensive Immigration Reform but lets get to the political realities of what washington is like. Maria teresa, you were on the ground in nevada recently talking to caucusgoers including first time caucusgoers. In terms of the depth of policy here, is that going to be the grounds on which people make their decision between these two candidates . Is that the grounds on which people decide whether or not to go out, whether they feel theres real mastery and commitment on these issues . I think thats part of it. When you look at first time caucusgoers, first time voters in most immigrant communities, i liken them to buying their first car. They ask the tough questions to see how much mileage is a car is going to get. If it works, they bet on you. Thats what theyre doing. If you saw a lot of questions being asked today, they were quite sophisticated for first time voters. Theyre getting into the meat and potatoes of it. I want to talk about the whole idea what were seeing on the ground when it comes to why many of the unions dont want to endorse. Its because there is a real big split between the leadership who really wants to pull for Hillary Clinton and the membership who is a Younger Generation who wants to go for Bernie Sanders. And they dont want to have those conversations but its a leadership struggle within their membership. They want to say, were going to take a step back. The thing we dont want to do is create ruckus and when theyre at the end of the day of the democratic nominee when theyre going to need us. Thats one of the things theyre not talking about but thats one of the things i was able to gather while i was on the ground. Let me follow with you on that. I mean, obviously, if there is a leadership, membership split than as keeping the unions at least defacto on the sidelines, thats a real question as to whether or not the Democratic Party is going to suffer overall in terms of democratic turnout, in terms of latino turnout if the unions arent playing their enthusiastic we are on one side and organizing for our candidate kind of role. Do you expect that to be suppress anybody terms of the overall turnout and enthesethus yax . I think thats why harry reid started talking to the workers. Historically whatever he says goes. In this case, were having trouble the young man that asked account last question to hillary that took two bites as the her was a union worker. He was probably wearing a pin but he was demonstrative of what the union is facing. Leadership wants to be gung ho and support hillary, but the membership because its younger what bernie is saying is really resonating with them. Victoria, let me ask you in terms of the differentiation between these candidates. Go ahead, jump in. Well, i was going to say that split were seeing with the unions, were also seeing it within families here on the ground in nevada in talking to folks hogs have been doing outreach. You see the High Schoolers excited about Bernie Sanders. But their parents are hillary supporters. So what were seeing is a split enthusiasm. The real question is going to be, are we going to see the parents convince the kids to go one way or the kids to go with the parents the other way. I am optimistic weigh are seeing enthusiasm on both fronts. Ultimately will they come together and support one candidate . Thats the question. But the enthusiasm is here on the ground. But and the thing to watch for. I think one of the things that i would encourage the both candidates to look at, when i was on the ground, we had an opportunity to have conversations with two young latina business owners. One who was going to caucus because of the messages they were hearing from people mobilizing on the ground and those who were not. The reason she was not going to caucus not one of the political campaigns will actually reached out to her. So this is low hanging fruit. So i think that when you look at hillary, she has to i would caution her. If she goes too much to the left when it comes to going after the white house, shes going to have to basically figure out how to bring in a lot of moderate republicans that went for george bush perhaps and a lot of individuals that are interested in the issues when it comes to small business, things that dont necessarily resonate with the Bernie Sanders extreme left if that makes any sense. It does make sense. It shows the complexity of what these candidates have to do in addition to the logistical complexity of trying to get people to the caucuses wh