the campaign trial. in south korea, police are taking the blame for that deadly halloween crowd stampede that killed more than 150 people. mostly young adults including two americans. and the conservative supreme court majority takes up affirmative action today in college admissions. singling a possible reversal on another issue that had been law. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington on halloween. the attack on paul pelosi spurring a flood of conspiracy theories and disinformation including from twitter's new owner, elon musk, who tweeted an opinion, an opinion article from a low credibility source to his 100 million followers about the attack. and although many republicans have condemned the violent attack on the speaker's husband, republican governor glenn youngkin made light of the assault just hours after it happened. >> speaker pelosi's husband had a break-in last night and he was assaulted. there's no room for violence, but we're going to send her back to california. that's what we're going to go do. >> the suspect, 42-year-old david dupage is expected to be chashlged today after striking pelosi in the head with a hammer. sources say he was shouting, where is nancy. echoing what we heard in the halls of congress on january 6th, 2020. >> nancy! oh, nancy! nancy! where are you, nancy? >> since the election of donald trump in 2016, there's been a 967% spike in threats against members of congress. joining me now, nbc news senior reporter, ben collins who covers extremism and disinformation. "usa today" washington bureau chief, susan page, joyce vance, and ab stoddard. ben, paul pelosi now has spoken to investigators we understand from tom winter. he's awake. has all of his cognitive functioning, thank goodness. but what do you know about the suspect's online footprint? >> the suspect was this idea of there's a kai ball running the world and the people obsessed with this believe nancy pelosi is running that kai ball. another thing is elon musk tweeted this conspiracy theory over the weekend to try to deflect against this. you know, he said there's a tiny possibility there might be more to the story. he linked the santa monica observer. that's a website that claimed hillary clinton died before a debate in 2016 and was replaced with a body double. that's the sort of thing you're seeing. the same people who agitated violence against nancy pelosi deflecting the blame. saying over and over again that you know, they've had nothing to do with this or that in fact, nancy pelosi's husband was part of some much larger, more sordid affair that is not true. >> president biden linked the rise in violence to the big lie over the weekend. let's watch. >> can't condemn the violence unless you condemn those people continue to argue the election was not real. >> joyce, we've just reported that threats against members of congress jumped by 967% since donald trump's election in 2016. first read is calling this a three alarm fire. how do we counter this kind of violence. is violence against people in both parties? we've seen for instance what happened of course to steve sclees, susan collins. liz cheney was under so many death threats she couldn't campaign in wyoming for her own re-election. she couldn't go out in public on election night. had to have a private event. so there's no question that it's against people in both parties. justice kavanaugh. let me pause it with the fact that it is coming primarily, primarily, from these right wing conspiracy theories and antisemitic tropes. >> so as someone who has both experience as a prosecutor and teaches in the area of democratic institutions and what keeps them strong, it seems clear to me the question you answer is the important one and there are both legal solutions and political ones. prosecutions are great, but they only happen after someone's been threatened or god forbid harmed and that's what we'll see in this case with speaker pelosi's husband. the real question is how do our institutions respond. at least in my lifetime, in american politics when there's been a tragedy like this, this is the attempted assassination of the speaker of the house's husband. people from all sides of the political spectrum have pulled together to condemn the activity and that helps to tamp down on the violence. when these people on the fringes begin to act is when they believe they're heroes. when they believe there's some legitimacy to the violence. so the absence of condemnation from the former president, from party leadership itself, creates a vacuum where these people are emboldened and we can expect to see more violence. you're right, andrea. this happens to people on both sides of the spectrum. we've seen it happening with judges including supreme court justices in the wake of the dobbs decision. the response has to be that people in public life, no matter their political affiliation, call this out and set a tone that violence is simply unacceptable in american life. without that, we'll see more of this. >> i was talking to john meacham on this program on friday and we talked about 1968 because as i was starting as a reporter in the late '60s as a young local reporter, that was the year of bobby kennedy, dr. king. so we feel that it was the year of so much violence in our society. he said this is worse than any time going back to the civil war. susan, it was a letter from nancy pelosi over the weekend to her colleagues in congress. and she wrote a violent man broke into our family home, demanded to confront me and brutally attacked my husband, paul. our children, grandchildren and are i heartbroken and traumatized by the life threatening attack on our pop. so there's a long history of the speaker going back to 2006 being vilified by republicans in campaign ads and one recently where a republican candidate takes out a shotgun and shoots off the shotgun to get rid of pelosi. >> yeah. >> she's unique in american politics. >> that wasn't just a random candidate. it was tom emmett, the chair of the national republican congressional committee. now he said yesterday that it's unfair to characterize that as being anything untoward, but it is an example of the way nancy pelosi has been demonized and used as a target by republicans almost since she was elected to be democratic leader in 2003 to a degree unmatched by any other congressional leader. she is a figure who raises the most money for democrats and she is the target that raises the most money for republicans and the tone of the attacks on her, which have always been liberal, rigid ide log, that kind of thing have become increasingly personal and violent and has led us to january 6th and to what we saw in san francisco with paul pelosi. >> and ab, we've heard from republicans like mitch mcconnell. he said he was horrified by the attack, but republican candidates running for office are still spreading the big lie. ted cruz is retweeting conspiracy theories by matt walsh and was pointed out by joyce, donald trump has said nothing about it. >> donald trump is not going to say anything. i did notice that senator grassley and mcconnell and senator scott and cruz and even matt gaetz of florida, the congressman who lives to be outrageous and is not there in congress to do anything constructive, all put out statements on friday saying that violence was repugnant. they, most of them used the word disgusted, which seems as if they were working with a template for their remarks. that's great. but i think that the president is right and you are right, andrea, that the connection between this assault, an attempted assassination of the speaker of the house, the third line to the presidency in the united states of america, is connected to the threats for violence we're expecting on november 8th. there is going to be loads of tension and altercation and tensions and polling places and we hope nothing more that seriously injures or kills anybody. the republicans have week to make that connection and say if they are opposed and disgusted by violence, then they should come out and call for calm and peace on election day and that's what they're not doing. they're aware that if we are counting ballots, that donald trump will be inspiring such anger and volatility with his words likely posting about how things must be rigged if they're still being counted. all the republicans running for office know this. all the republicans in office know this yet they say nothing. >> and ben, let's talk about elon musk because he tweeted to a hundred million followers these conspiracy theories and it's still trending nationally. how much should people be concerned this close to the election with the twitter takeover. already, we're seeing a big change in the number of right wing followers that have jumped on and others on the left who have fallen out of twitter. is twitter going to become really partisan platform? >> probably, yes. it is kind of unbelievable that within 24 hours of this attack happening reality popped up on twitter pushed by the richest man in the world. the owner of the largest new social media platform in the world. to push that inverted reality. that inverted reality. here's what happened. a man with a hit list went and hit nancy pelosi's husband in the head with a hammer. in his home. and she was on that hit list. the inverted reality supposed is an elaborate sex scheme involving a conspiracy theory about a cover up of sort of a sex party or something and that was pushed out by the richest man in the world. that is within 48 hours of that man taking over that website. he deleted it. didn't say i'm sorry or anything like that. this is about some sort of political game to him. so i would be worried. this is our reality now. this is where we're about to head. >> and let me just add one other thing because there's election foreign interference. we've got what russia has done in the past. what china and iran and other adversaries and going forward, it's been reported, ben, that a quarter of musks financing for his various enterprises comes from china. and what are the guardrails there? what about that kind of influence and conflict of interest? >> and saudi arabia as well. the other issue is he can't put out you know, he took the company private so there's no fiduciary due to the shareholders to do the right thing anymore, to put out quarterly reports about the direction of the company or if he's doing the right thing. basically, he's beholden to his own checkbook, advertisers. if advertisers flee this platform, it's going to be a very expensive hobby for him. but if they stay on the platform, he can do this basically with impunity and aid whatever foreign government he wants for his business deals. >> thank you all very much, but it's very close to the election for all of these hideous things to be happening. ben, susan, joyce, and ab, thanks to all. the search for answers. how a slow motion stampede overtook a crowded halloween street party in an important region in seoul, killing at least 150 people. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. watching "anl reports" on msnbc. 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francisco, but i'm working overtime to stay here. now is not the time to raise taxes. i'm voting no on propositions m and o, because the cost of everything is going up. san francisco collects more tax revenue than nearly any city in america. but our streets are dirty and public safety is not getting better. i'm working hard to live within my budget. the city should too. join me in voting no on m and o. now is not the time to raise taxes in san francisco. vote no on m and o. terrible tragedy. south korea is in mourning today after a deadly stampede at a halloween celebration, killing more than 150 people including two americans. the majority of the victims were in their 20s and 30s, mostly women. they were crushed as a surge of people who were partying on a saturday night when tens of thousands packed the streets of the neighborhood. the crowds were so massive witnesses say they had, there was no room to move or to breathe. among the dead, two american college students doing semesters abroad. a nursing student from kentucky and 20-year-old steven beech. >> it was just waves of people coming in. i lost my friend. >> a doctor visiting from florida performed cpr on the victims along with passers by. >> i see about 20 to 30 bodies of people and debris everywhere. >> joining us now is "washington post" breaking news reporter, brian peach, who's been based in seoul, south korea. those numbers are just staggering. bring us up to date on the number of people still injured and what the police investigation is. >> yeah. they're rising and we expect them to continue to keep rising. at least for the next few days. i think just within the last hour or two, it's up to 155 deceased people. that was up from 154. again as you mentioned, mostly female. >> talk to me about that, the party, i guess post covid, this was a big celebration. a great release. also, talk to us about that marketplace. that whole area because it's very well-known there and very highly trafficked. i've been there myself. >> yeah, it's hard to describe exactly what it was. it was just halloween weekend, which is the foreigner, the night life district, the gay district of seoul. really a central hub in the city for a lot of people. so halloween weekend is the biggest night of the year for the neighborhood in seoul. a lot of people were expecting the crowds pre covid. i know a lot of friends who just totally avoided that area that weekend but for a lot of other people, it's a destination. a fear of missing out sort of thing because it's where almost everybody goes. halloween is not a traditional holiday in korea by any means, but over the past few years, it's really kind of picked up pace. especially in this neighborhood. it felt like home to be walking and the neighborhood and you see halloween decorations around so that's what this weekend was for a lot of people and obviously ended up a lot different will. >> what about the official investigations because clearly, they didn't have any plan, you know, for crowd control or any exit strategy. >> yeah, there are still a lot of questions remaining about what exactly went wrong. i think what is becoming clear now is that there just were not enough police in the area. seoul and korea, they're really famous for having really robust police presence at protests. they are such a clean operation. there was one on saturday that i actually walked by going from another event earlier in the day in a separate part of the city and it was a lot of people and there were duelling protests. one against the president and one toward the president. there were so many police officers and it was incredibly orderly and they were really great at crowd control. but you know when you go on a saturday night, it was a completely different story. the streets and alleys where a lot of the partying was going on, they're very narrow. it's a very hilly neighborhood. so it kind of was a recipe for disaster with so many people converging on the neighborhood. >> brian, thank you very much for being with us today. from "the washington post." on this you know, terrible, terrible situation. the tragedy in south korea then there was this horrible accident in india over the weekend after a bridge collapsed killing at least 132 people. this is one of the worst disasters that india has ever seen in this past decade. i want to warn you, the video we're going to show is very disturbing. security cameras catching the moment that this suspension bridge began to tremble. hundreds of sight seers then clinging to it cables before then plunging into the river below. rescuers have pulled at least 177 survivors from the water. the bridge reopened just four days earlier after being shuddered for six months for repairs. obviously there's going to be an investigation into that. and coming up. seeing red. republicans determined to try to turn some of the bluest part of the country red, but how are their chances looking? we'll take a look at that. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. "andrea mitchell reports. this is msnbc. ♪ ♪ this is the moment. for a treatment for moderate-to-severe eczema. cibinqo — fda approved. 100% steroid free. not an injection, cibinqo is a once-daily pill for adults who didn't respond to previous treatments. and cibinqo helps provide clearer skin and less itch. cibinqo can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections and do blood tests. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. do not take with medicines that prevent blood clots. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma, lung, skin and other cancers, serious heart-related events, and blood clots can happen. people 50 and older with heart disease risk factors have an increased risk of serious heart-related events or death with jak inhibitors. this is the moment. but we've only just begun. speak with your doctor about cibinqo today. an innovation from pfizer. the hiring process used to be the death of me. but with upwork... with upwork the hiring process is fast and flexible. behold... all that talent! ♪ ti love san francisco,w ♪ but i'm working overtime to stay here. now is not the time to raise taxes. i'm voting no on propositions m and o, because the cost of everything is going up. san francisco collects more tax revenue than nearly any city in america. but our streets are dirty and public safety is not getting better. i'm working hard to live within my budget. the city should too. join me in voting no on m and o. now is not the time to raise taxes in san francisco. vote no on m and o. you hear the music. we're just eight days away from election day where voters are going to decide which party is going to control congress for the remainder of president biden's term and as democrats look for a boost from party leaders like president obama and president biden, republicans are just trying to flip seats in some of the bluest parts of the country. nbc news capitol hill correspondent has the latest. >> republicans are feeling the momentum. you're of the mindset it's red wave. >> absolutely. >> but taking the majority and how big it could be depends on the gop flipping seats in some of the biggest parts of the country. new york state alone has more in play house seats than anywhere else. >> we're going to win races in a lot of places you haven't seen. >> that puts him in the center of it all. he's not just an in a nail biter of a re-election battle. >> it's not news to me this is a competitive part of the world. >> he's also the guy in charge of helping democrats keep the house. a tall order for any president's first midterm made tougher by rising costs and a focus on crime. >> that's why we're on the verge of winning. >> now, both parties are pouring money into races like this trying to close the deal with voters. in maloney's district alone, gop aligned groups shelled out millions in the last two weeks. what he said to me is republicans are setting money on fire here. >> this isn't a function of lighting money on fire. this is a function of voters in this district are fed up and want change. >> across the map, republicans investing in states that have elected democrats for decades. blanketing the air waves with ads. democrats focused on contrast. especially on abortion rights. do you think it's overblown? >> yes, because nobody's in jeopardy of having their reproductive healthcare taken away from them here in new york. >> that might explain why these blue state seats are in play for republicans, but democrats are still competitive in red states that have abortion restrictions. polls show that's where their pro-choice messaging is resognating most. >> how come they're still fighting in the toughest districts? this is the home stretch. >> but where the money and where they're spending it speaks the loudest. >> our thanks to ali. joinings now with a lot more is former democratic congressman, bob brady from pennsylvania. also with us, an award winning strategist from target smart and peter baker from "the new york times." so, peter, president obama and president biden are set to hold a joint effort saturday in philadelphia. back to philadelphia. ahead of tuesday's election. which the president and vice president harris were just there last friday night. what are we going to expect from their messaging in these closing days? >> yeah, it's going to be a fascinating event. we haven't seen the former president and his former vice president, the current president, together very often and this will be i think a way of trying to motivate democratic voters to get out, to drive up excitement. especially in pennsylvania. probably be one of the two or three most important senate races in the country this year and one of the few places where president biden has actually gone where there is a competitive race. most he's stayed away from. pennsylvania being the exception. at least we'll see the two next to each other. president obama remains a star for many democrats. it's always a danger to speak at rally where president obama is speaking if you're not as talented as he is, but i think the idea is to say that the party is unified despite its differences in opinion over progressive versus moderate ideas over the years and what really matters is stopping the republicans from taking seats like the one in pennsylvania. >> congressman brady, you're a great vote counter in pennsylvania and especially the philadelphia turnout. we've talked many times about that. so what are you seeing in pennsylvania in this key race, fetterman versus oz? is fetterman going to get enough support out of philadelphia and those suburban collar counties? >> absolutely, but first of all, we can take the lady out of philadelphia but you can't take the philadelphia out of the lady. >> i'm with you. i'm all in. >> thank you. >> critical game tonight. >> yep. it will be fun. i think that without question, fetterman will be fine. he'll get an extremely large vote out of the city of philadelphia which will carry some of the collar counties and counties out west to get enough for him to defeat oz. you know, he had a little issue. he had a little stroke and it showed in the debate, but he's a fighter and we're a fighter and we're fighters and we're going to continue fighting for him. he has good issues. the main thing our wizard of oz is saying, i got a daughter, a wife, a granddaughter and god forbid they come home with an issue, an abortion issue, i'm not going to call my elected official. he wants me to call my elected official. i'm not calling my elected official and that's resonate big time. he didn't answer about the lindsey graham bill, the trump insurrection. he never talked about the minimum major. no platform other than he's moving it from new jersey and other houses he owns. he makes the point that he's been to a lot of places and stayed in pennsylvania. yeah. for the first time he's been a lot of places in the state of pennsylvania. and probably the last time. so i think the john fetterman, you know, is doing a good job. he's fighting as hard as he can. he had a little issue with the debate only because again, he had to read off a monitor, but his doctors are saying he can perform. he can very well do his duties as united states senator and he will. >> tom, you've been following the pennsylvania voting very closely, the early returns at least, and when i was in pittsburgh last week, the allegheny county officials and local congressmen were telling me there's been a huge early vote and they believe a lot of it is democratic. what are you seeing? >> it's really remarkable what we're seeing in the early vote really around the country. we talk about pennsylvania. we know the early vote was very democratic in 2020 in pennsylvania. it was a big part of how joe biden carried the state. this is remarkable. pennsylvania's one of the few state where is the democratic share of the early vote right now is actually bigger than it was in 2020 so there's a good sign for democrats. fetterman. and we're seeing similar things around it had country. it's consistent with a very close battle between each side for control of congress. >> no way to know whether these are democratic ticket splitters. people concerned about fetterman, but you know, want to vote for shapiro for governor because they really don't like doug mastriano's extremism, to be frank. >> that's right. and we don't know how they're voting, but the democratic lead in term of the registered democrats at this point is about 50 points. so democrats are building this big advantage before election day where republicans are going to have to come from behind. big part of what democrats are going to have to look at is a big youth vote on election day. but you're right. we don't know how they're voting. >> peter baker, one of the other trends we're talking about though is that non-college educated white voters are increasing part of the electorate and they have tended to be voting more republican than democratic in recent cycles. >> yeah. that's absolutely right. that's been a challenge for democrats. constituency that they have done better on than they have in the last few cycles. they have yet to figure out how to unlock that mystery. that's one of the reasons they thought fetterman initially would be particularly appealing to that part of the electorate as well as other candidates around the country they thought might be more appealing to every day americans who don't have college education. don't have lots of money. and we're going to find out. beyond this election, that's one of the significant, one of the most important challenges for democrats going forward is whether or not they have lost these democrats to the trumpian populous in a long-term way or whether this is an aberration. obviously biden came back and won some of those blue wall states in the midwest and pennsylvania that had been lost to trump in 2016, but that's, we're going to see a lot more in eight days about that dynamic. >> and tom, we're also seeing very close races of course, senate races, in georgia and wisconsin where the democrat in wisconsin is behind and we overheard on the hot mike senator schumer saying on friday to president biden in pennsylvania that georgia didn't look good for warnock to get re-elected. what are you seeing? >> it's interesting. republicans were sort of flooding the zone this last couple of weeks with a lot of polls that were showing their candidates doing better than some of the mainstream polls showed. so we're looking at the data. the most important poll is who votes and when you look at those states, in wisconsin, we're seeing a bigger gender gap. meaning women are turning out at a higher rate in the early vote than they were two years ago. >> could that be another kansas, what's happened in kansas? >> potentially. is this dobbs effect we saw in kansas, i think that's a big question. in wisconsin, we're seeing it. in georgia, especially african american voters, especially women, they're outpacing their numbers from the 2020 early vote. so some good early signs for democrats. >> any way that's helpful for stacy brady? >> stacey abrams. >> excuse me. stacey abrams, i'm talking about one of our executives. stacey abrams of course has been behind brian kemp in their rematch. >> absolutely. in the end when you look at the winning coalition in georgia and what delivered two senate seats and a presidential in 2020, the electorate is beginning to look a lot like it did in 2020, which is a good sign for abrams and warnock. >> tom, our numbers guy. thank you very much. and former congressman, bob brady. good to see you again. go, phils. and of course, peter baker. thanks to all. >> stay well. >> thank you. and college diversity. that's the big issue that the conservative leaning supreme court has taken on. the affirmative action in college admissions today. the big takeaways up next. this is msnbc. takeaways up next. this is msnbc. nd i have never been more active. shingles doesn't care. i go to spin classes with my coworkers. good for you, shingles doesn't care. because no matter how healthy you feel, your risk of shingles sharply increases after age 50. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. ♪♪ i'm getting vaccinated with prevnar 20®. a pfizer vaccine! so am i. because i'm at risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. i'm asking about prevnar 20® because there's a chance pneumococcal pneumonia could put me in the hospital. if you're 19 or older, with certain chronic conditions like copd, asthma, diabetes, or heart disease or are 65 or older, you may be at increased risk for pneumococcal pneumonia. prevnar 20® is approved in adults to help prevent infections from 20 strains of the bacteria that cause pneumococcal pneumonia. in just one dose. don't get prevnar 20® if you've had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients. adults with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine. the most common side effects were pain and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, fatigue, headache, and joint pain. i want to be able to keep my plans. that's why i chose to get vaccinated with prevnar 20®. because just one dose can help protect me from pneumococcal pneumonia. ask your doctor or pharmacist about getting vaccinated with prevnar 20® today. resonating. wave of attacks today targeting critical infrastructure sites ahead of the winter. at least 18 power plants were hit. 40% of the ukrainians in the capital no longer have access to water. perhaps more urgently, russia is claiming it will no longer allow grain shipment to get past russia's black sea naval blockade. that could cause extreme famine in africa and other less developed areas of the world, as well as higher inflation around the world as grain will not be able to be exported. the u.n. is considering this on an emergency basis. molly hunter joins us from kyiv. molly, president zelenskyy is accusing russia of creating artificial famine. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: president zelenskyy is accusing russia of doing that. we've heard strong words over the weekend from president biden who called it outrageous. we heard secretary of state blinken that putin was playing hunger games. the u.n. security council is holding an emergency meeting right now. i'm going to share right now the good news we've just learned under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and relief coordinator had just said that 12 ships were able to leave ukrainian ports. this is very good news. over the weekend, russia suspended its support. on sunday, not one taker, the u.n. chartered ship which was carrying 30,000 metric tons of grain headed for the horn of africa was able to leave sunday. we understand those ships have now left through the maritime humanitarian corridor. that is good news. i also want to bring you upup to date on what's been happening. a wave of missile attacks on critical infrastructure. we headed out to a power plant and i spoke with a young mother, 29-year-old. she has two children and lives close to the power plant. she told me about today. >> we were having breakfast and we hear boom, boom, boom, and at first, we lost internet. after second attack, electricity. didn't work. i don't know how we will spend this winter because in our building, we have no gas and without electricity, i can't see -- >> reporter: andrea, we spoke with so many families today. how are they going to go into this bitter winter without gas, electricity, and water? 40% of the capital is without water. at least 270,000 people are without power. that number hopefully will go down overnight. andrea? >> molly hunter. thank you very much. stay safe. and the supreme court hearing today arguments on affirmative action in college admissions involving two cases that could end up in a precedent shattering decision next year. the they'll decide whether the limited consciousness of race and admissions to create more student bodies is permitted by the, as permitted i should say, by the high court decades ago is unconstitutional. if they rule in favor of the position that it is not constitutional, it would be the second time this new super majority has overturned long established precedent after doing so on roe v. wade last june. joining me now, yamiche, also anchor of washington week. hey, yamiche. so a lot of signals coming from the oral argument. >> this is a very big day at the supreme court given the fact that the justices are hearing oral arguments for these two cases that center on affirmative action and really the question, can race be part of the factors that universities and colleges look into when they're thinking about admitting students. we've heard some fiery back and forths because there are two sort of arguments. the first is focused on unc. it's going to be the part where brown jackson is not going to recuse herself. later on in the day, she's going to recuse herself when they hear about harvard university because she was part of harvard university's leadership, but i want to play for you a little bit of brown jackson as she was questioning the lawyers today. >> there are 40 factors about all sorts of things that the admissions offices is looking at and you haven't demonstrated or shown one situation in which all they look at is race and take from that stereotypes and other things. they're looking at the full person with all of these characteristics. >> so without saying how these justices will rule, when you listen to the liberal justices, you hear them questioning this idea of how you would take race out completely if it's really important to individuals and especially if it's historically been used against people and at times barred from people going to these universities. then you have opponents like students for fair admissions who sued harvard university and the university of north carolina. they say using race in any sort of form, it discriminates specifically against white and asian students. this is going to be a big decision. it could end affirmative action. we think we're going to get a decision in the summer of 2023. until then, we're going to really be watching this case. >> what a courts have ruled in the past in decisions that were decided in two case, one with justice o'connor, another with justice kennedy being decisive, both reagan justices, in those cases, they decided that in a limited way, race could be -- it's now, or next year. welcome to fun dining. president biden has now signed the inflation >> that's right, andrea. it would be a big, big difference if affirm action was thrown out completely and these justices ruled that race could not be used to factor in any sort of decision of students. we should note the supreme court had looked at this case multiple times. three times by my count. and each time, they said you can't set aside seats in particular for black students or native american students. they say diversity is part of the educational experience, but this majority could see it a different way and change the way affirmative action is used across the country. >> exactly. yamiche, thank you very much for being there for us today. and early detection. she helped educate the public on colon cancer screening two decades ago and now she's determined to do the same with breast cancer with her own diagnosis. on this last day of breast cancer awareness month, the veteran journalist joins me, my friend, on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. , on "andrea reports" on msnbc. step 1: greet your shrimp. step 2: bid your shrimp farewell. reeepeeeat. ultimate endless shrimp is ending soon. it's now, or next year. welcome to fun dining. president biden has now signed the inflation reduction act into law. ok, so what exactly does it mean for you? 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(music) visit goldhub.com. october is breast cancer awareness month, a disease that accounts for 30% of all new cancer cases in women across the country. one in eight well will develop massive invasive breast cancer. one of them, my friend and former colleague, katie couric, former co host of "today." on nbc. on her website, she wrote, on january 21, 2022, was the first day of summer, my eighth wedding anniversary and the day i found out i had breast cancer. the long-time advocate for cancer screening of course and now a cancer survivor herself. hey, katie. it's great to see you. >> hey, andrea. i'm so glad to see you. and you sound like you have the same cold i have. >> well, it's just sitting outside in pittsburgh for four hours last week. nothing serious. so how are you feeling? talk to me. >> i'm feeling great. honestly, i'm feeling really well. this all happened last june, as you mentioned. i had a lumpectomy july 14th. i had radiation really for the month of september. i'm feeling really well. i need to get on inhibitors which i will do for five years, which i'm dreading, doing a lot of research on. and my prognosis is excellent. having dealt with cancer in my family with my husband, jay, who of course you knew, and my sister emily. they were both diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and pancreatic cancer respectively. i understand a very bleak prognosis and a very good one. so i feel incredibly fortunate. and one of the reasons i wanted to talk about this, andrea, is i just want to make sure that women get screened because when these cancers, as you well know, are detected early, that's when they are the most treatable. and and you can have a favorable prognosis. >> that was my experience many -- 11 or 12 years ago now. i was on the aromatase inhibitor. it was not fun but it was not awful. we can talk. >> call me. call me. >> one of the problems was you missed your mammogram by six months because of covid. then you went for the checkup. you had a digital mammogram. because when you have dense breasts, that is how many of these mammograms don't catch tumors, correct? >> so, i had a 3d mammogram, which is much better than a standard mammogram. many facilities now offer 3d mammography. but for the past 10 years or so, or even longer, i have also been getting what is called breast ultrasound, which is really the same ultrasound you get if you're progress, but it's done on your breasts. it's for women with dense breasts. it is a good screening. when you have dense breasts, really finding a tumor on a mammogram is often like trying to find a snowball against a field of snow. with that as the back drop. in other words, they both come out as sort of white in the mammogram. and you can find some. but breast ultrasounds are good additional screening for women who have dense breasts. but two problems, andrea. one, a lot of women don't know they have dense breasts. 38% of states require doctors to notify patients but they don't know what to do with that information. and, two, insurance often doesn't cover additional screening in the form of a breast ultrasound or mri or a fast mri, a truncated mri being tested across the country. so it's really important for women to be their own advocates to find out, a, if they have dense breasts, what additional screening they might need to do. and then try to get their insurance companies to cover that additional screening. and that's something that i'm working with a lot of people in washington on kind of trying to understand that policy and ways that we might be able to improve it. >> well, the only good news out of all of this as you are such a force for good and for change. and we have seen it withstand up to cancer, all you have done over the years with colon cancer, your on-air colonoscopy on the "today." program. this is another factor that will help so many women across the country. >> i hope so. they say it's the worst club with the best members. amy klobuchar called me this weekend. senator klobuchar experienced this about a year ago. but, you know, i think that preventive help is so important. catching cancer early is really better in the long run in terms of cost benefit analysis. and i think when the medical establishment sometimes looks at these things, they don't want to overreact to false positives. they don't want the cost involved to training tech technicians or the time doctors have to spend. it is so incredibly important. i just want women to ask do i have dense breasts, what do i need to do to protect myself. unfortunately right now often only women of means can afford that additional testing. so we need to really address health disparities and make sure everyone has access to some of this life-saving technology. >> thank you, katie. it's great to see you. >> and to see you. >> before we go, i want to say just as we go, as we leave, we were going to say happy halloween and show you our children. we will post online. chris jansing picks it up right after this message. ing picks it after this message when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable,... i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc got the upper hand... rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older... with at least 1 heart disease risk factor have higher risks. don't take if allergic to rinvoq... as serious reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant. put uc in check and keep it there, with rinvoq. ask your gastroenterologist about rinvoq. and learn how abbvie could help you save. i love san francisco, but i'm working overtime to stay here. now is not the time to raise taxes. i'm voting no on propositions m and o, because the cost of everything is going up. san francisco collects more tax revenue than nearly any city in america. but our streets are dirty and public safety is not getting better. i'm working hard to live within my budget. the city should too. join me in voting no on m and o. now is not the time to raise taxes in san francisco. vote no on m and o.