>> today on matter of fact. the president elect takes on the nation's challenges. as we consider the accomplishments of the obama administration. >> obama came in on a wave of magic. >> how will youem then -- new at 11:00meet the man who traveled 100- thousand miles to talk to the forgotten voters. >> how much time will they give the new president to deliver promises? >> plus,what's it like to live meal to meal? what you need to know.

hit the mark? i'm soledad o'brien. welcome to matter of fact. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] as we look to the inauguration of donald trump, we take time to consider the accomplishments-and missed opportunities -- of president barack obama. we witnessed the election of the first black president. the signing of his signature legislation, health care reform. overseeing the special ops execution of osama bin laden. speaking to the nation, about hook. how will history judge him? i'm joined by presidential historians alan lichtman, who by the way predicted donald trump's victory, and michael kazin, who's written about the difference between leading with a congressional majority, and then going it alone. nice to see you both.

as president obama heads out of the whitehouse, we'll talk about his legacy but really how long before we really know a legacy. >> two things are needed to judge a legacy -- judgment of time to see how initiatives play out and the opening up of records and the opportunity for historians to chew through those records and provide real analysis. >> how does a high favorability rating heading out of office play into that judgment, do you think, michael? >> doesn't matter. vrbata, i don't think. lbj for example was a great success in terms of domestic policy, but horrendous in terms of the vietnam deble for but had a lot to do with. historians are still arguing how do you stack up great society programs, many of which still exist like medicare and are popular against what happened in vietnam? these questions are debated and it really depends on what you think this president did and whether you still value what they did. >> let's walk through what he did and if we value what he did. he talked about the aca,

obamacare as greatest achievement, how would you assess that? >> i think it is a great achievement. talked about truman. presidents from truman on, not just dems but also nixon, have sought comprehensive health care reform. they all failed. only obama succeeded and he succeeded without a single republican vote in either the horse or the senate. the first time in the history of piece of social legislation was enacted without any support from the opposition party. and look -- >> isn't that a bad thing? kind of? >> the problem was that he didn't get support from republicans, because they were set on defeating every piece of legislation and this was the one he wanted the most, he had to compromise on this bill. and we'll see if it survives. >> the economy when president obama -- i remember being on the treadmill and watching my

anxiety, i had to leave the gym because couldn't get away from tv at that time in sept 2008, now obviously the economy has improved dramatically. but president obama, i don't think has never really gotten any credit for what he did for the economy. >> i think that's true. most people around the country don't know what the stimulus plan did. it did a lot of things but it was hidden as opposed to roosevelt's recovery plan where he was doing for the country. politically a president has to be a policy person and politician, he will not be judged as successfully as a politician as he was getting bills. >> this is the great paradox of the obama presidency. obama came in on wave of magic. 2008 he was an extraordinary, charismatic candidate. the kind of candidate to make

and he lost that magic once he became president. he never sold his initiatives. he saved the economy from another great depression. but no one knows that. >> let me ask you about immigration, which was a failure. immigration reform was never realized. something that has never really been realized, president obama deported more people than any other president before him. >>the reason he did that is he thought this would lay the groundwork for get r it didn't happen, so he took heat from the left for deporting people and from the right for not deporting more people and pushing for legalizing people who were in the country illegally. in order for him to succeed at getting immigration reform, he would have had to keep democratic majorities. being an intellectual, more a policy person in the whitehouse, giving up the magic

responsible for a lot of his shortcomings, i say almost his shortcomings. >> gentlemen, thank i very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next on matter of fact. one man's quest to meet the voters who handed trump the presidency. >> wherever the media was, i was seeing support greater than that at every level. a hundred thousand miles later, he's ready to tell you what they were thinking. and later, >> i was blessed to have a mom who was a stock broker

>> president-elect donald trump's first term will likely be judged in part by how he addresses the needs of the working-class voters who swept him into office. photographer and writer chris arnade travelled 100,000 miles across america talking to those voters. two factors drove their vote -- they say -- their economic fears and the desire for respect. i spoke with him in new

>> chris, nice to have you. >> thanks for having me. >> you've got an interesting background, you worked on wall st, have a phd in physics. what led you to hop in your car and cover 100,000 miles to get to know the trump voter? >> my career on wall street taught me that sometimes you make decisions without understanding the impact of those decisions so i wanted to see the impact of the decisions we had made on wall st and many of those were awful and i wanted tse united states. >> did you know early on that trump had a good chance to go all the way to the presidency when you started this trip? >> i had a better idea than most people, i think. i was going primarily to communities impacted by drugs,

addiction and where i saw drugs entering i also saw trump supporters. early on, i heard people saying, this guy is resonating with me, even though what i was hearing on the tv is that it wasn't resonating with the media. >> that is interesting of course that has been a criticism of the media - not understanding the voters. what do you think the overlap with the opioid and heroin epidemic had to do with the trump voter? >> i think quite a bit. i didn't intend when i went in my car, i didn't intend to talk about trump, i intended to talk drugs. and when i went to the communities that i went to i saw hope leaving and i saw trump entering. and i think the frustration and the pain that was leading people into drugs was also leading people, searching for another solution politically.

color as well, was there a difference between white people as trump supporters and people of color in the same communities looked at trump? >> definitely. there was. the first, there were very few supporters of trump among the african american community, even though within that community there was an equal amount of pain and frustration, economic. but within the black community you had a strong historical connection to the democratic party, and i think also they saw in trump some ugly language and some intentions on his part that turned them off of trump. he plays with racist fire. >> there are people who talk about the economic anxiety voter, and i've always thought that doesn't quite capture it. and then there are people who say, well actually the average trump voter, is someone making $70.000 plus a year, not

making tons of money. there are others who say the trump voter is racist. i don't believe that either. the trump voter is misogynistic -- i don't buy that either. how do you weave those concepts together to explain this voter who has looked the other way about a person who is going to be the next pres of the us? >> the first divide is race. was your background? and where those communities were, where people were primarily communities in counties, where there were not strong educational backgrounds, the whole community was supporting trump. not just the people supporting the jobs, and everyone in that community felt humiliated. the sense of what about me? why are we being left behind? >> what was the biggest surprise in that 100,000 miles

>> i would go with the obvious - the amount of trump support i heard early. within two days of him announcing, i was hearing voters, i was hearing one thing in the news, i would turn on the news and hear people making fun of trump, saying he was a joke, and then that day i talked to ten people and eight of them were trump supporters. he was just resonating its as simple as that. >> fascinating journey, people chris arnade nice to see you thank you. >> thank you for having me. >> next on matter of fact. >> once or twice a week, we had nothing to eat. >> why are so many teenagers barely able to make it from meal to meal? plus >> people who give and volunteer, live longer are

>> people think about younger kids. people think seniors and food

about teens. just thinking about the scale of this issue, millions of teens nationwide, this is something we should all be scandalized by. >> you just heard martha galvez of the urban institute say the number of teens experiencing hunger is staggering. >> in a newly released study, the urban institute says at least 6.8 million young people between 10 and 17 are living in households where food is scarce. >> we paid a visit to covenant house here in washington, d-c -- a place that provides meals, a food pantry, and wrap around services to young people in need. 25 year old jamal, and 22 year old marquis, are two young adults who've received their help. >> at covenant house, jamal and marquis share more than a meal. in a sense, they share a history. both came from families living on the edge, when the death of

>> my mom wasn't able to deal with the fact of my fathers death, she wasn't able to deal that. so she tuned out. so that's how hunger stepped on my doorstep. >> once or twice a week we had something to eat, once or twice a week, we had nothing to eat. >> just 17 at the time, jamal remembers becoming the protector for his younger siblings. >> pretty much the picture was just us trying to survive. the kids trying to survive. we went to a couple of family members, but nobody never came to aid. >> many of the young people that walk in our door come in with nothing more than the shirt off their backs. >> so when we ask if you're hungry and would you like something to eat, i would say,

so we begin with the meal and then move forward to address their needs. >> needs, vulnerable teenagers don't want to share. >> teenagers are especially tuned into how other people think about them. being seen as hungry, being seen as poor, being seen as needy is not something they want to advertise to the world. >> marquis' world fell apart when he was 13. his mom died and he ended up in foster care. in fact, eight foster homes and two group homes. there, where i had to at least go steal to get my meals. or i just wouldn't eat. that's because they didn't feed me or as far as like the food would be locked up and i couldn't get to it. >> the urban institute study looked at the strategies used by teenagers facing extreme hunger. they found "teens in all but two of the thirteen communities studied.. engage in criminal behavior, ranging from shoplifting food directly to stealing items to resell for

perhaps the other most common strategy is stretching the food they get from school lunch programs. >> maybe they'll take food home from school so they have it on the weekend because there's nothing in the house. >> it just doesn't feel right when you are hungry. you're very weak and the only thing on your mind is getting better. spiritually it strikes at you knowing you're hungry and you don't have any way to provide for that. >> young people facing limited options and sometimes impossible choices. >> one point from the study bears repeating. teens fear the stigma around hunger and actively try to hide it.

our website. >> next on matter of fact. >> what happened to trust? happened to faith? >> hear this woman's argument for putting your own money on the line for our country's future. and, later, how was yourthanksgiving? >> we've got a thought about

>> the political pendulum that swung to the left in 2008, bringing in the obama administration, has made a return to the right with the in each case, the losing side experienced an uncertainty about the priorities and programs that might survive new leadership, leading to increased giving to their causes. >> this is no surprise to philanthropist tracy gary, an heir to the pillsbury fortune, who has already earmarked 92 percent of her fortune for causes she supports. >> i spoke with her recently

>> my honor. >> thank you. so often the loser in an election their causes sort of get spurred because people are concerned the gov will not -- now that the government will not support their agenda. have you seen this in the aftermath of this election? >> absolutely this an incredibly exciting moment for planned parenthood, for the aclu, you know we need to also support black lives matter, immigrant and refugee groups, things the government isn't apt to actually support right now. >> this is the way it is. what we notice is actually the pendulum swings and different funding happens in government, and the same was true when clinton and the obama's came in. >> we knew their agenda would be more funded by the government and the things they didn't support -- nra a good example -- increased in donations, because people interested in that agenda recognized that they were going to go through philanthropic

at work. a great thing. if we just give to race/class based interests we are not going to think of what does the whole need, what do we need as a union, not just my self-interest. what do low and middle income people in that bottom 50% really need right now? safety nets needed? what will and won't the government do? im excited because i >> what's your philosophy around philanthropy? i feel like there are many threads about how people think about giving. you knew as a child that you were going to come into a ton of money. did your parents sit you down and say this is how you think about your wealth and how you give it away? >> i was blessed who had a mom who was a stock broker and she knew that money came and went and i had this money at 21, a

true was $1.3 million by the time i got it. she was good at community based giving. go out and volunteer where you live, find out what communities need. this is not just about making up what you think you're passionate about. sometimes that's a factor, but you have to think what am i passionate about that is needed right now. and we learn that by learning through volunteering. >. tracy gary thank you so much nice to see you. >> thank you so much. >> when we return >> can we all just sit down and

>> no doubt about it. hosting thanksgiving dinner is stressful. especially this year -- as these tweets prove. >> katie says, "you don't know stress until you're making a thanksgiving turkey for the first time for 30 people." >> and, will chimed in on the thanksgiving survival guide with this advice. 1 - arrive at table. 2 - say, "so, who'd everybody vote for?" 3 - spend the day eating in

matter your seating plan. >> we hope you enjoyed this uniquely american holiday with family and friends. but if you are not, especially if you're among the many now avoiding family and friends because of the election results, just a simple thought. time heals. and you can always get new friends. both as a matter of the heart, and as a matter of fact.

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