shared future. >> and another grim milestone in the battle against the coronavirus as the global death toll surpasses 5 million people since the pandemic hit nearly two years ago. the highest profile white house official was just announced sunday. the president's press secretary jen psaki testing positive in a breakthrough case after several of her own family members were hit with the virus last week, explaining why psaki suddenly stayed home from the president's overseas trip. she has not been with the president since last tuesday since she was masked outdoors and distanced, and he tested negative yesterday. it's a huge week in politics with democrats ner about the president's declining polls and the tossup virginia's governor race, and big mayoral contests around the country. all this with possible implications for the midterms and control of congress one year away. let's begin at the supreme court with today's historic abortion arguments. the justices are more than two hours into hearing arguments on two big challenges to the restrictive texas abortion law that all but bans the procedure in the state after six weeks when most women do not know they are pregnant. the key question framed by an opponent of the law, justice sotomayor questioning the lawyer for reproductive rights group appealing the ban. >> let's go to what the harm is that you're seeking an injunction against the clerks for. am i understanding correctly that you believe that the way this sba is structured, that what the chilling effect is the very multiplicity of lawsuits that are threatened against you? >> yes, your honor, that's exactly right. it is the fact -- there's a combination of various ways that the state has created special rules applicable only to sba to make state courts a tool that can be used to nullify constitutional rights that have been recognized by this court. >> and joining me now, nbc's julia ainsley who was following the argumentings, harry litman, former deputy assistant attorney general during the clinton administration. melissa lurie, and former u.s. attorney joyce vance. julia, take us through what you've heard in the last two hours from the justices in this important argument? >> it's interesting, andrea, i spent the morning outside the supreme court where protesters are talking about heartbeats and viability. none of those words are being mentioned inside the supreme court today. what they're talking about is whether or not this law can stand by the very nature of how it's been written. as you know, this allows private citizens in the state of texas to sue anyone who may have a connection to a woman's abortion. and so it takes the enforcement away from the state and puts it on the court. now, it's very interesting to hear from brett kavanaugh today. as we know he's been a conservative justice, appointed by president trump, someone who we can expect to overturn roe v. wade. he started questioning the solicitor general from texas asking him if he thought this law -- what would stop this law from being copied across the country on things like gun rights, if you could have a vigilante sue someone who sold an assault weapon for millions of dollars. what would keep it from going forward. so that is some indication that this court, even though they did allow this law to go forward two months ago may be in a different place. but of course they're not talking about roe v. wade and they will have to come up with a decision on that in december. just because this law may change, and we'll see, we still have more decisions on this topic coming down the pipe just this session. >> and that brings me, joyce, to the peculiar nature of this law, and whether or not as marcus was writing in "the washington post" this weekend, and as you have raised in your podcast whether there is a bigger issue here arguably than roe v. wade because the texas law, this vigilante law overturn jurisprudence that goes back to the supreme court and the primacy of the supreme court in judicial matters if any state can question legitimate supreme court constitutional laws by going around the court. >> so that's exactly the issue that the court is considering this morning. today's argument isn't about the substantive merits of abortion rights in roe v. wade. it's about whether this texas law where there's so much indication where it's directly designed to avoid judicial review, whether laws of that statute are legitimate or whether the court should enjoin it from staying in effect while the litigation is ongoing. the most interesting feature of this morning's argument as julia notes has been questioning from both justices barrett and justice kavanaugh that suggests that they might have decided to flip sides. they originally voted against enjoining the law. this morning they are testing with lawyers for the state of texas the merits of this sort of approach suggesting that it could be used broadly, for instance, to thwart religious rights or rights to gun ownership. so this will be a very narrow decision when it comes out about this statutory mechanism and less so about abortion itself. >> harry litman, i know it's dangerous to prejudge from oral arguments which way the supreme court is going. but as a former supreme court clerk, help us to interpret what you're hearing today. >> okay, you know, it is dangerous, but i heard six justices echo joyce who get it, who get that basically now that they're hearing it on the merits, texas has done something extreme and unprecedented to try to get around judicial review in the first place. it's based on a whole constitutional scheme that's been in place for over 100 years, and as justice kagan said, they've tried to find the chink in the armor, the little way in which the law we have now can maybe be circumvented, and i think six people on the supreme court were ready to say maybe so, under our current law you found the chink in the armor, but guess what we're going to pass up that ching. there's a broader principle involved. that's the ability of judges in the first place to enforce constitutional rights and just because you've cleverly found what you think is a way around it, we, the supreme court, have the ability and we will exercise the ability to patch things up and keep this scheme, which, again, is just to keep the enforcement scheme from preventing review, not roe itself. we will keep it from being effective. we will permit federal courts to rule. >> let's hear a little bit of the oral arguments to that point. >> the entire point of this law, its purpose and its effect is to find the chink in the armor of ex parte young, ex parte young set out a basic principle of how our government is supposed to work and how people can seek review of unconstitutional state laws. and the fact that after oh, these many years some geniuses came up with a way to evade the commands of that decision as well as the command that the broader, the even broader principle that states are not to nullify federal constitutional rights, and to say, oh, we've never seen this before, so we can't do anything about it, i guess i just don't understand the argument. >> melissa, you clerked for judge sotomayor when she was a judge before she was a justice. you know her so well, and she's so passionate on this as a proponent of abortion rights, of choice. so she may have allies now in this whole argument about what texas did because they also have another way, of course, on december 1st, they're going to be hearing the mississippi case. that's where they may come down and actually overturn roe. >> i think that last snippet was from justice kagan, and she really brought home the fact that this is not about some narrow procedural issues regarding these two cases but a broader existential question for this court, whether or not the court is going to allow rogue states like texas to blatantly defy extent constitutional precedent, in the same way we saw the states defying brown versus board of education, and cooper versus aaron was mentioned repeatedly this morning in oral arguments. so the court seems to understand that the very legitimacy of the court as an institution is in play here and justice kagan underscored that, so did justice sotomayor. of course coming down the pike as you suggest, there is this question of the oral argument on december 1st in the dobbs case. that will allow the court to take up the broader substantive issue and, of course, these two cases can't be seen in isolation. they very much relate to one another, a decision on roe in dobbs will certainly have implications for what the court has to do in sb8 substantively. >> and to you here, i just -- i don't know how you can interpret the fact that there may be enough justices to ban this ban, but still let it stand, not to allow any injunctive relief? it's going to be months before we hear, and now all these women are being affected. >> that's exactly right. these justices have these concerns that we're hearing today, why on september 1st did they allow it to go forward. chief justice john roberts did side with the dissent in that saying this was flagrantly unconstitutional. it could be that they would allow this to continue until they finally issue a decision, and in the meantime you could have the overturning of roe versus wade in the december lawsuit, which could make whatever decision they come to by then a moot point. a lot of moving pieces here. i do think that the arguments today were very strong, especially in favor of the fact that this was a law meant to skirt judicial review, and of course the justices don't like that. >> thanks for that, julia. joyce, is there any scenario as we wait months for a decision here, where the justices would change their position on injunctive relief if someone were to petition again? or is that just a dead letter now? >> it's an unusual case, and unusual things could potentially happen. i think it's tough to predict. there was some questioning this morning of one of the clinic lawyers about whether or not he had asked for an interim remedy, and justice barrett was interested in exploring whether or not unlike doj, which has actually made that request and said that if the court were to find in their favor that the injunction against sb8 should be restored, that the private plaintiffs, the:s and the abortion providers had not made a similar motion, the lawyer made that request orally in court that if they found in favor of his clients that they would restore the injunction that would -- i know this is procedurally confusing, keep sb 8 from continuing to be in effect. whether that is something that the court might do immediately following argument or whether, as others had said, it might be months coming is something we can't know for certain at this point. >> thanks to you to melissa murray, harry litman, of course, and julia ainsley here. and we are just hours away from election day in virginia with tomorrow's bellwether gubernatorial contest, the mayor of richmond joining me live in just a moment. he is the chair of the terry mcauliffe democratic campaign. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. like yodelin. 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glenn youngkin reframe the debate on education, including things like toni morrison's book "beloved" becoming a flash point in this race with the issue of critical race theory, which is not even taught in virginia schools, but it's become, according to most of the polls a big deal. >> well, thank you so much, andrea, and you are correct. we have seen glenn youngkin sort of divide parents all throughout the commonwealth of virginia pitting parents against parents, demonizing teachers, demonizing public education, and to me that's not the sort of governor i know that virginians want. we want a governor who understands that taught about the seriousness and how barbaric slavery was featured in "beloved" is actually correct. in order for us to actually grow as a commonwealth, we have to understand that slavery was real. the holocaust was real and unfortunately glenn youngkin and his supporters don't believe so and believe that our children should not be taught the same as well. at the end of the day, when you run down people lie toni morrison, a nobel prize winner, a pulitzer prize winner as well, that's the sort of divisiveness that the commonwealth cannot stand for. glenn youngkin is ending his campaign the same way he began his campaign, on trump conspiracy theories, dividing families and parents. >> former president trump is hosting a telerally tonight for glenn youngkin and other republicans, but youngkin is sort of having a textbook campaign where he has used trump's endorsement where it helps him with the republican base, with trump followers, but so down played it by keeping him out of the state that in suburban areas in northern virginia people don't seem to realize he is a trump supported candidate. >> well, you know what, glenn youngkin, this -- the way he's ending his campaign is akin to the phrase dance with the one that brought you. he doubled down on trump's conspiracy theories and his policies at the beginning of his campaign when he won the nomination, and now he's ending the campaign the same way, focused on not allowing mask mandates to protect our children, focused on being against a woman's right to choose and reproductive rights, and also now, you know, talking about censorship in our schools. at the end of the day, glenn youngkin has been duplicitous. he says one thing to another crowd, his base, and goes on and puts on a mitt romney wrapper for everyone else. that is not the social governing you need. you need a governor who's done the job before, and that's governor mcauliffe. focus on health care. focus on -- >> sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt. i wanted to make sure, i asked you about the president because in our new poll he's down to 42%. the wrong track direction is, you know, 71. i mean, these are terrible numbers, comparable to donald trump's in the first six months of his presidency. terrible for a democrat who won the state by ten points. is this dragging down terry mcauliffe? >> you know what, i think that we always knew this race was going to be close. i could have written that story a year ago that the gubernatorial race in virginia was going to be close. this is how it's always been. the fact that we are in a tight race with the republican party is no surprise that virginians who follow these sort of races in the past. this is the first test after incumbent -- after a party takes over the white house, and we are first up. we're going to focus on those kitchen table issues that lift all of virginians up and not divide virginians like glenn youngkin and the trump team have done over the course of the last year. >> what about the black folks that have been so important to the biden victory, are black voters dissatisfied with the economy, with the biden performance, with what's been happening on capitol hill? do they have other factors that seem to be depressing enthusiasm? are you concerned about that? >> you know, when people talk about this enthusiasm gap, i don't know what they're talking about. i was this a crowd in the suburbs of richmond yesterday, and i saw an excited and enthusiastic crowd. when i look at the numbers that are coming out of the campaign, we talk about 2.3 million text messages that were sent out, 1.5 million phone calls to voters as well, 275,000 doors were knocked as well, and 1.1 million people turned out early already. i focus on that sort of enthusiasm. that's what you want to see on the closing days of the campaign. black voters will show up because they know what is at stake. once again, glenn youngkin is running down toni morrison and putting his campaign on the line behind those who believe we should be censoring what is taught in our schools. that is not the sort of leadership we need in the governorship. that's why you'll see black voters and many voters show up tomorrow. >> i want to clarify something that i said last week about the campaign having watched president obama's appearance for terry mcauliffe and ratified by the correspondence in the field, when i said i thought it looked like a small crowd for the former president. in fact, i and we and all of us were in error because it was limited by president biden's team and it was a ticketed event, and there were people who were turned away who tried to get there, thousands more people, so i just wanted to clarify that. it would have been a much bigger crowd. thank you very much mayor levar stoney. we have invited glenn youngkin and his campaign on the show. so far they've declined the offer. there's still time. we've got a day to go. one hour until midnight, the dire warning leading into a major climate summit where two of the world's largest polluters won't be there. we'll head live to scotland next only on msnbc scotland next only on msnb ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ got a couple of bogeys on your six, limu. they need customized car insurance from liberty mutual so they only pay for what they need. what do you say we see what this bird can do? woooooooooooooo... we are not 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your lines, we provide you the information so you will dig safely. . president biden is in scotland today for the international climate summit pushing foreign leaders to slash their carbon emissions. biden is there without final congressional approval for his massive spending plan, which includes a half trillion dollars in clean energy and climate commitments. british prime minister boris johnson warning today of the dire consequences if the summit fails. >> it's one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock, and we need to act now. if we don't get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow. >> boris johnson, of course, the host leader for the summit in glasgow, scotland. joining me now is nbc senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. chief executive and cofounder of independent climate change think tank ekg and scientist michael man, penn state professor and director of their earth science center, his latest book is entitled "the new climate war." kelly o., a potentially embarrassing image of president biden has emerged from the climate conference there. tell us what we know and what the white house is saying about this. i know how exhausting that overseas schedule is, and they did have a late night last night. >> yes, this is the fifth day of the president's overseas tour, and he was seen on camera with his eyes closed. it appears that perhaps he was dozing, and in these settings, cameras are all around. the camera caught president biden who turns 79 later this month with his eyes closed for a period of time, and you're right, these can be embarrassing situations. you have the contrast of leaders including president biden calling for the urgency of these issues, of addressing climate and a moment like that in a session can be a political obstacle for a moment. it is also true that the hours are long, the time differences are real, and the president has kept a rigorous schedule over several days having lots of meetings and appearances and speeches and quite a late night last night. he's about to have a one on one meeting with the indonesian leader. he earlier today met with boris johnson, has been doing speech himself, and all of the sort of rigors of these conferences. two days for the leaders here. the conference itself goes on for a longer period. the white house, i have reached out. i have not heard back for what they're going to say about that moment caught on camera, but that's one of those things that will certainly be captured, criticized by some and noticed by others, it is one of those things whenever you're in public those moments are seen and scrutinized. regardless of all of the circumstances and the reasoning behind it, the president has certainly -- he flew this morning from italy to scotland and has a busy schedule. so we're following the substance of what's happening here as well. the president urging leaders to get on board with action, especially those countries that have not taken official steps. the president also hoping that his domestic agenda back home, which has more than a half trillion dollars of climate related spending will be codified soon by congress as he urges leaders to step up as well. >> and kelly o., just want to note i remember back in the day when ronald reagan with the cameras rolling and a very, very busy schedule going from country to country fell asleep at the vatican with the pope, and that was a notable moment at the time. >> it's a human experience. >> yes, indeed. and it did result in some big changes the next times he traveled for the rest of his two terms, in fact, a better schedule let's just say. well, let's talk to nick, let's talk about the uk, the host here. a big disappointment for a lot of the western countries, western european countries because you don't have china, the biggest -- the world's biggest emitter. you don't have vladimir putin there. they are participating virtually, and their commitments, you know, certainly will not be felt as strongly. from the perspective of the host country and the global posture, how much is being accomplished there? >> well, it's always a shame when leaders don't travel but the question is what they tell the negotiators to do. and we've seen the g20 some progress when china admitted that countries have to come back and agree to up their ambition this decade. people were disappointed with china's offer. they haven't improved their offer, despite the costs of clean energy falling massively, the risks of climate change becoming much clearer. it's all come around what are we going to do coming out of glasgow to bridge that gap to stop dangerous climate change, and china's going to have to be part of that change. >> talking about the urgent threat is global cooperation even possible with so many disparate interests among these including the fact that russia is basically a fossil fuel economy and that china now because of their own domestic issues has been reverting to building new coal plants. >> yeah, thanks, andrea, it's good to be with you, and we can't let a few bad apples spoil the whole thing. i would distinguish between china and russia. russia a petro state, they're an industrial economy, and they have chosen specifically to try to sabotage meaningful progress on climate in recent years along with other countries like saudi arabia. china on the other hand is a still developing economy, and if we are to convince them that they shouldn't exploit cheap dirty fossil fuel energy, then the rest of us really have to make the commitments necessary. i mean, we are the world's largest legacy polluter. we've put more carbon pollution into the atmosphere than any other country. the united states is leading again with the biden administration. they've taken a leadership position on climate. that's brought china back to the negotiating table. china has agreed to no longer fund new overseas coal projects. so there is some progress being made here, but make no mistake. we need to see a lot more progress diplomatically over the next one or two weeks here in glasgow. >> and kelly, how confident is the white house that the president's going to get this deal this week as well as have pressure on china? there's a lot of reports that there is a big difference inside the nsc wean the nsc and john kerry on how hard to push china on some of these issues. >> reporter: certainly president biden is projecting confidence about what's happening back home saying very clearly that he expects by the end of this week that democrats in congress will pass his agenda and legislation. we've seen democrats assert deadlines and miss those deadlines before. he believes that the structure of the framework is now known and can be shared at a conference like this and he can put forward the ideas behind that as american leadership. so he is projecting that confidence here. in terms of trying -- one of the things the president has talked about is the importance of face-to-face presence and being able to be a face in the room and to have these conversations and to be able to represent american values in some of these conversations, and that has been an important thing here where we've seen antony blinken play a role, john kerry play a role, and as your conversation included the fact that xi jinping has not left china in two years, and so a real difference there and wanting pressure on china, wanting to call out china is a part of the biden agenda here for sure, and certainly the president wants to have a stamp on this as he has just left the g20 and italy and trying to repair some of the european relationships there, having some measurable success on some of the issues with tariffs and some of the economic issues dealing with the minimum tax believing that there's a bit of momentum there and now broadening that to other regions of the world and these climate issues he believes certainly projecting and talking about some of those achievements as american sort of leadership with a bit of an advantage, even with all the domestic issues at home that are challenging, the poll numbers, the delays in getting his agenda done. there are some things he can point to here that are positive. andrea. >> and certainly that 15% minimum global tax with janet yellen is in ireland today making another speech on that, and that was a big success for them. thanks so much to kelly o'donnell and nick and michael man, thanks all for being with us today. deadline delay, last minute changes to the massive spending bill that kelly's been talking about could push the final vote. congresswoman pramila jayapal joining us next, a key player as the details are still being hammered out. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc "andrea mitchel reports" on msnb ur money right. ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi—you could save with low rates and no fees. earn a $500 bonus when you refi-and get your money right. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean free. hypoallergennd safe for sensitive skin. . the future of the president's social policy legislation is still a moving target on capitol hill. congressional democrats continue to work on the $1.75 trillion plan as progressives still try to get prescription drug pricing and immigration into the bill before votes are scheduled. that could jeopardize the white house goal to get a vote before the house leaves town at the end of the week on both that bill and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. speakers wish for a vote as early as tomorrow is already in jeopardy as the progressive caucus is waiting for a definitive promise from the two senators who have had a virtual veto power over the bills for months. senators manchin and sinema, of course. joining us now is someone who can tell us exactly what's happening, the head of the house progressive caucus, congresswoman pramila jayapal who represents the seventh district of washington. congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us today. you endorsed the white house framework last week. you as a group. are you confident that those two senators will be for it? because they have been less than definitive in what they've said so far publicly. >> yes, andrea, it's good to see you, and we did endorse the framework, and in fact, we also had a very, very good meeting yesterday of the full cpc after the text was released, which was something that we were asking for for the build back better act. i am very happy to say we are now awaiting negotiations amongst senators on prescription drug pricing and child care and some details on immigration, but the progressive caucus, assuming good resolution of those issues from the senate side that we will be excited to vote for both bills. we now feel like we have what we need. we are taking the president's word at the fact that he believes he can get 50 votes in the senate, and you know, i hope that the two senators that we've been waiting on these months, who have come to the table in good faith and negotiated, that they understand that this is a leap of faith, but you know, assuming we get these final negotiations done, we're ready to pass both bills, and i think the caucus feels very good about the fact that we've been able to do what we've said from the beginning, which is pass both bills at the same time. get the entirety of the president's agenda to his desk for signature and ultimately deliver transformative change for people across this country. >> there's a big if there, if you don't get senate agreement on child care, immigration, prescription drugs, does that mean that you won't go forward? >> well, i think that we are very, very close is my understanding, and it isn't just the two senators at this point. you know, you have to get 50 votes in the senate. so there are different senators who are pushing very hard for different pieces of this bill, including the prescription drug pricing piece, and on child care, actually is really not about the overall. it's really about the implementation details. there are some differences between the language and what the biden framework said. we are trying to iron out those differences, but my hope is that that will happen very quickly, and as i said, you know, look, i think we're in the very end zone here. we are just about to get this done, and we're feeling very good about both bills, and you know, and the president frankly being able to say once we deliver the build back better act what a crucial time this is, you know, boris johnson talking about how important climate is. there's a $555 billion investment in climate, and we spent the weekend looking at whether it would really lead to significant reductions, meaningful reductions in climate conditions. given the detailed look we've had and the briefings we've had from the white house, yes, we will get there with that. that is a huge victory, and that's why we think, you know we should pass these two bills together as soon as possible. and let's wrap up these negotiations. let's get these last things done, and let's pass them through. i think we're ready. >> now, it is fairly likely that the senate parliamentarian will rule out the immigration piece based on precedence saying it doesn't belong in reconciliation. are you willing to go without that, or do you want to push it to a vote, push your members to a vote, and then have it come back and be knocked out of the senate version, and then you'd have to vote again in the house? >> well, andrea, you know i've been an immigrant rights activist my whole life, 20 years before coming to congress. such an important issue for me as one of only 14 naturalized citizens, and i had really hoped and been pushing for immigration as part of this bill, and i have brought it up to the president multiple times, and what we have come to is that if there are senators who will not overrule the parliamentarian, then this is not -- i don't think that it's going to be possible to put it in. i think i was working to try and get agreement on that over the parliamentarian. at this point we should vote on the things the parliamentarian is likely to include. there are options on the table. i don't understand why those options weren't taken to the parliamentarian before for her to rule or why it's taking so long. that's a senate thing, not a house thing. and i do understand my house colleague's desire to not vote on something that the parliamentarian is going to rule out of order. at the same time, we just have to get these two bills done. whatever the resolution is there, i want real change for immigrants in some way, shape, or form. if it's not going to be in this bill because senator manchin won't do it or whoever won't do it in the senate, then let's get the administration to commit to a set of executive actions that will bring relief to immigrants. we can't continue to pretend like we support immigrants and then do nothing to actually reward them for their front line essential work. so that's what we're trying to work through right now. i do think we should have sent all these options to the parliamentarian and have a rule, but for whatever reason in the senate, that decision was different. so that's what we're waiting on right now. >> of course the president and speaker pelosi had wanted this before he left town on thursday. the speaker said she was calling for a vote, and there's reporting that in conversations with you, you got the president to not when he talked to the caucus call for a vote, which gave people a window to let it go until after he comes back from his trip. it was an unusual defeat for the speaker by some reports. there's maybe some friction there. can you clarify that? >> well, look, i wish i had that kind of power to get the president to do or not do something. that is not what happened. what happened is i made it clear to the white house that we did not have the votes for a fifth vote alone. i have said that for weeks. anybody that has listened to me should know that and i reiterated that position to the white house. i said, look, if we just wait a couple more days, we can get the text, if the text is 90% done, let's not try to have this fight again. we said this a couple of weebs ago that we didn't have the votes without the bba, and people said, well, you know, it's still going to come up for a vote. i said i am not a liar. i am not a bluffer. i don't say i have votes when i don't have them. hopefully people will realize that, when i say we don't have the votes, we don't have the vote. we have a very slim margin in the house. it's not like any of us can say any more than we can say to joe manchin or we have a three-vote margin in the house. i was being very clear for day with the speaker, with the white house, with anybody who would listen on television that we did not have the votes, but we could very quickly in a few days as soon as we got the text drafted. as soon as we got a chance for our numbers to make sure thault priorities were in there, we would be ready to vote for both bills and we would take the president's leap of faith, which members -- some members are uncomfortable about this, but as the president, he said he has 51 votes in the senate. we'll take him at his word, but we needed to see the text and vote both bills through. and frankly, i don't know -- i think arbitrary deadlines are not helpful. and i tried to signal very early so nobody would be surprised, but look, i don't have any power over the president. i can just say what i know about the progressive caucus. and then people have to make their own decision on what to do. >> thank you, congresswoman. thank you for being with us today. you still think it's going to happen this week, yes or no. >> >> i sure hope so. we are pushing very hard, because we want to get this done. we feel good about where we are now. but you know, there are last pieces. so let's get those done and let's get them out. >> okay. we're going to have to leave it there. thank you again. and at an all-time low, the president kicking off key overseas summit with his lowest approval rating ever and his domestic agenda hanging in the balance. more coming up on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. . with extra hot sauce. tonight, i'll be eating salmon sushi with a japanese jiggly cheesecake. (doorbell rings) jolly good. fire. (horse neighing) elton: nas? yeah? spare a pound? what? you know, bones, shillings, lolly? lolly? bangers and mash? i'm... i'm sorry? i don't have any money. you don't look broke. elton: my rocket is skint! this week is shaking up to be a major test for the democratic party and the latest nbc news poll. without this weekend shows the president biden's approval rating dropped to a new low of 42 %. seven in ten adults including almost half of democrats believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. and as the president's agenda hangs in the balance, his party's inaction could spell trouble in virginia and other critical races around the country tomorrow. with us is a senior political editor mark murray and former press secretary robert gibbs. let's start with your big poll, mark. what does it tell us about the president and the heads winds for democrats, especially terry mcauliffe. to me the biggest sign about the poll is it shows the democrats aren't necessarily 2010 territory. they're in 2014 territory. when we end up looking at our poll, the numbers for joe biden's approval rating, the right track wrong track numbers look more like 2014 than they said 2010. and either situation would be rough for democrats right now. but when we look ahead to virginia, what's telling, remember, mark warner barely won reelection in in 2019. one of the reasons why it was such the terrible political environment for democrats and we're seeing that again for democrats. just nine months into biden's presidency. >> yeah. and mark warner was a former governor also and hugely popular. what's the new poll and other signals tell you about what's happening with the president and with these off-year elections? >> well, i think mark is very right. i mean, it's a tough poll for democrats. there are a lot of head winds. i would say it will be interesting to watch tomorrow in the virginia results what happens in the suburbs, what happens with base democratic voters. how energized are they to get out? we know already, even with a jump-all election in virginia, in a state biden won by ten, that the political environment has significantly deteriorated for democrats. i'm less worried about what that means in the past. i'm much more worried about what that means in the next year as we head into those midterm elections. i would say if there's one bright spot in the poll for biden and democrats, it's there's a almost 20-point increase in the number of people that think the worst around covid is behind us. we know that that dip in that number going into august and through august really coincided with the change in president biden's approval numbers. i'll be interested to see now that many of the people think the worst is behind us, do his numbers begin to creep back up as we get back into more normal as the economy expands and opens up again? >> but it may be too late for candidates like terry mcauliffe if the polls are believed and it really is neck and neck, and some other factors could be a lot of military in the time order in virginia. the afghanistan withdrawal may not be showing up in a national poll, but in virginia at least democrats there believe it's having an effect? >> andrea, you look at the last three months by democrats, afghanistan one of the really big ones that was there, and look, i really do think that robert's probably right. that this could very well be just a rock bottom type of poll that things start getting better for democrats over the next several months or so. a little too late for terry mcauliffe. one worrying sign in our poll is the enthusiasm numbers. right now democrats aren't enthusiastic about the election looking ahead to the midterms. democrats are going to need to turn it around in the next year. >> in terms of the republican base, we don't know what's going to happen with this trump rally tonight. but youngkin has been sort of genius in embracing his endorsement but not letting him come too close. >> yeah. it's going to be fascinating based on the outcome of the election whether republicans realize having donald trump off of center stage or almost off any stage is a good thing. i don't think that donald trump intends to move very far off the stage, and i think quite frankly, going into 2022, he's going to be very active in endorsements. i think he'll be more active on the campaign trail, and i think it will be hard for the electorate to divorce their opinions of trump. >> robert, thank you so much. and mark, you and i are going to be on with christian and chuck anchoring the nbc news streaming coverage tomorrow night starting at 9:00. we're excited about that. before we go, just a quick moment to say happy halloween to some of our favorite and youngest viewers. you can see we've had a boom in your family over the last year. jasper, violet, rose, grace, daphne, abbie, nate, robin, from all of our halloween characters from our amr family to yours, and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports". chuck todd is back right after this. uck todd is back right aftr this when they can enjoy the best? 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