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?
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 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 numbe
impact is virginia. candidates for governor are kris kris crossing the state, with republican glenn youngkin in a statistical dead heat. joining me now, mayor of richmond, virginia, the co-chair of the mcauliffe campaign. thank you very much first of all, how did terry mcauliffe let 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
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. [yodeling] yo-de-le-he. (man 2) hey, no. uh-uh, don t do that. (man 1) we should go even higher! (man 2) yeah, let s do it. (both) woah! (man 2) i m good. (man 1) me, too. (man 2) mm-hm. (vo) adventure has a new look. (man 1) let s go lower. (man 2) lower, that sounds good. (vo) discover more in the all-new subaru outback wilderness.