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Tanzina Vega: This is the takeaway, I'm Tanzina Vega. For many Americans, this is the most consequential election of their lifetime. Since the spring, hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from COVID-19, and every week infections are rising at unprecedented rates. More than eight million Americans have been pushed into poverty, many fearing they won't be able to feed themselves or their families. Others are struggling to keep a roof over their head while scrambling to find work.

The country is also reckoning with systematic and historical mistreatment of women and people of color, protests have reached a fever pitch on both sides of the political divide. As a result, Americans are taking to the polls in droves. So far more than 93 million people have voted early, many waiting on long lines in the heat or the rain, sometimes for hours. Today on the show a final look at both presidential candidates. We begin with the incumbent.

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During his 2016 campaign, candidate Donald Trump appealed to his base by promising a myriad of actions too as he said, "Make America great again."

President Donald Trump: I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans. I will build a great, great wall on our Southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. We are going to fix our inner cities, we're going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something much better and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We are going to renegotiate the disaster known as NAFTA. We are going to renegotiate.

Finally, take care of our great veterans. I'm going to pour-- I'm pro-life, the judges will be pro-life. We will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. We're going to drain the swamp of Washington and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world. I alone can fix it.

Tanzina: Now four years on and with election day tomorrow, the big question is has president Trump kept his promises? Anita Kumar is with me and she's a white house correspondent for politico, Anita welcome to the show.

Anita Kumar: Sure, thanks for having me back. On the takeaway Anita, we have a few guiding principles, foundations of the show, things we observe in this country. They include three gaps, the truth gap, the wealth gap, and the empathy gap. If we use those gaps as a guide, how is the president done Anita in truth?

Anita: In truth well, we've seen him exaggerate a lot. We've seen him lie a lot. We've seen him most recently on the campaign trail talking about his accomplishments but some of those accomplishments didn't happen under his watch, some of them didn't happen at all. It's not been good for the last few years particularly the last few months.

Tanzina: Let's talk a little bit about how he's done in terms of the wealth gap which the way we define it is how communities of color often earn less wealth than their white counterparts. Has that gap grown?

Anita: I don't think he's really changed it that much. There's been some things that have helped some people, there have been some things that have hurt. One of his biggest accomplishments was the tax cuts back in his first year in office, and while it did impact all Americans, it primarily helped those that are wealthy, not the part of society that you're talking about.

Tanzina: Finally, the empathy gap.

Anita: Well, that's probably the biggest one that a lot of people talk about which is looking at primarily his immigration policy, and his rhetoric that people would say there's a lot lacking there. That's what Joe Biden is primarily campaigning on, that Donald Trump doesn't have the empathy to be president both in his policies and he mentioned Coronavirus talking a little bit about what's happening there, but also in just what his everyday languages. As he's been campaigning at these rallies, some of that rhetoric gets even more strong and pronounced what some of those things are that they're talking about. If you're the Democrats and you're Joe Biden you would definitely say that is it where he's lacking.

Tanzina: Yet many of his supporters actually like the president because of that lack of empathy.

Anita: You're exactly right. When I talk to supporters all over the country, one of the first things that they say about him is that they like that he is brash and that he says exactly what he's thinking, and he doesn't hold back. It's one of the biggest appeals of Donald Trump to them.

Tanzina: Let's go through this report card on how the president has done outside of those gaps. Anita, one of the most top of mind things right now for many people is the supreme court of the united states. The president and one of his biggest promises to the country when he took office was to reshape not only the supreme court but the federal judiciary writ large, many would say at the very least at the supreme court he's achieved that. What's your assessment, Anita of how the president has done reshaping the courts?

Anita: This is definitely one of his biggest achievements not only the supreme court which, of course, gets most of the attention, he has obviously three justices now one-third of the court, but he has appointed and gotten the senate to confirm more than 200 judges about 220. It's not just that it's a lot, it's reshaped certain courts. There are certain courts, appellate courts, federal courts that have flipped. They were liberal-leaning now they're conservative-leaning, there are some that have moved more to be conservative.

Overall, he has about a fourth of the active federal judges in America, that's a huge number and it's going to outlive him. It's going to outlive his presidency, this is something that's going to change the court system for a generation and years to come.

Tanzina: In terms of all of the promises he's made and we're going to go through them by topic, I would almost say that this is probably one of the most significant changes in terms of the legacy if the president is not re-elected that he will leave behind.

Anita: Definitely agree with you. One of the reasons is not just the sheer number, it's that judges stay for a long time. It's not an executive order or even a law that can be changed by congress in a year or two years. It's something that's going to last for quite a long time because these are appointments. Look at the supreme court lifetime appointments. This is changing the supreme court which was five-four, the latest justice is changing liberal justice to a conservative so now we're six-three, that's going to change issues all over the country for years to come.

Tanzina: Let's turn to criminal justice for a second. The president has made promises to reform criminal justice. One of the ways that he's attempted to do that is through something called the First Step Act, Anita, what is that and how successful has it been?

Anita: This is a really confusing one because he talked in 2016 and he's still talking about it in 2020 about being tougher on crime, putting people away, and all that stuff. He's talked about specific cases, he talks about it in general, but actually the First Step Act which was a bipartisan law that congress passed and he signed into law, really does try to deal with reducing sentences and sentencing disparities.

It was praised by African-Americans and Democrats. It goes against some of the rhetoric he's talking about, but people say it didn't go far enough on this particular issue. This was negotiated by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in the white house. It's a mixed bag. Definitely, this was the biggest thing he's done on this issue but people say he hasn't gone far enough.

Tanzina: You mentioned the president's rhetoric law and order, tough on crime, that's a lot often particularly law and order considered a racial dog-whistle for many, but he's also really made a big effort, the president has, in terms of getting support from police and police unions and military personnel and at the same time being at odds with top military officials. What would you assess his record to be with military personnel?

Anita: Yes, it's a really interesting contradiction there. It seems the police-- Local police, that's what he's generally talking about when he's talking about police, he accuses Joe Biden of trying to defund the police which he's not, but he is at odds with the military officials in his own administration, even top officials. If he gets a second term we're thinking that there's going to be changes even perhaps at the pentagon, perhaps the secretary over there of defense, it's partly because of what his promise was in 2016.

He said he was going to end America's endless wars. Now he did not do that. I will say that every president recently has come in and said-- I remember Barack Obama saying the same thing, "We're going to get out of Afghanistan," it didn't happen. It's a very tough thing when you get into office and your military officials, advisors tell you, "If you do this, harm will come to that region." He has tried to do it, he's reduced troop numbers, but he didn't get where he wanted, and that was mostly he was at odds with those military officials who kept pushing him not to do that. Over and over again you saw him not agreeing with them.

Tanzina: We also heard at the top Anita that he pledged to take care of America's veterans, but when President Trump was a candidate Trump he got into a lot of criticism for comments that he made about John McCain. How has he done treating American veterans?

Anita: Well, he likes to talk about this a lot and he mentions actually, a bill that passed that did help veterans and people say that it did, but it actually didn't pass under his tenure. There was some efforts made at the end of the Obama administration to help veterans primarily with healthcare. I'm glad you mentioned the rhetoric because if people are listening, that's probably the thing they remember the most.

It's what he said about veterans or what these leaks have been that he has said about military officials and veterans you mentioned John McCain. He denies that. He says that he has always been supportive. It's a little bit unclear, behind the scenes is he really saying some of these things or not? Of course, he claims he doesn't say these things about John McCain, but we've actually seen him say those publicly.

Tanzina: Anita, one of the other things we talked about are the tax cuts that the president promised to Americans and I'm wondering tax cuts are one thing, but they're also unemployment numbers that have come out. The most recent unemployment numbers say the unemployment rate declined to 7.9%. That's according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Does that give us a sense of how the Trump economy has done?

Anita: The economy was doing well before there were signs that it wasn't, but we'd seen some growth in the end of the Obama administration. We saw some growth, obviously, the pandemic came in unemployment hit about 15% or almost 15% and then has come down. People argue that it's because of those things that he has put into place deregulation and other things that the economy is starting to turn back around.

Tanzina: He's also made a lot about the third-quarter GDP numbers. A lot of people say the stock market is not the American kitchen table, if you will, but the president is saying the GDP growth was over 33%. Does that matter?

Anita: It matters to some people, it doesn't matter. You talked about that wealth gap before. It doesn't matter to some of those people that aren't feeling it. He likes to talk about the economy in terms of the stock market. That's one of his biggest things he talks about, but it doesn't impact every single person. Others would want him to do other things. There's no doubt about it though, the economy has done well until the pandemic and it's turning around. It's still in bad shape though so he's more to do.

Tanzina: Anita, let's turn to healthcare for a minute. It's a big issue on the minds of many voters, the president campaigned and talked a big game about ending the Affordable Care Act. He has not done that. What has stopped him?

Anita: Oh, so many things, mostly Congress. That was one of his biggest issues. He came in there said he was going to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If you remember back to the beginning of his term, there was that vote in Congress and this was that overnight vote in the middle of the night, Senator John McCain went in there and voted against this repeal.

The Republicans really had a hard time coming up with what they wanted the replacement to be. That was really the big problem and so Republicans on Capitol Hill disagreed on what that should be. Three Republicans were against him in the Senate. He did not get that vote. He has since talked about it for four years. Even recently, he saying he's going to come out with a new plan.

Now what the white house says is that he's cobbled together a lot of different things. He's done different executive orders and overall together that makes up a healthcare plan, but it doesn't replace the Affordable Care Act, which is still in place so to say he would replace it, hasn't happened. Now, he is asking the Supreme court to repeal it, to get rid of it completely. That won't happen until later at their next term and we don't really know what's going to happen with that

Tanzina: On the topic of healthcare. Of course, we cannot talk about the coronavirus pandemic more than 230,000 Americans are dead so far as a result of that, President Trump promised a vaccine he's been fighting with Anthony Fauci, he did start something called Operation Warp Speed. Where is that? Where does it stand?

Anita: It's just really honestly a mixed bag. People say that he did not display that leadership. When you talk to local state officials and school officials, they did not get the tests and the supplies they needed fast enough, even testing now is still lagging, Americans might know that if they try to go get a test, it might be hard to get, it might take too long to get it.

That's really where we are. Of course, you mentioned the vaccine, which is hugely important. It's something that he promised would be available before November 3rd, which hasn't happened yet. Still waiting on that and there are a number of promising-- Companies out there promising something, looking at something in these final stages, but still, probably won't be around till next year.

Tanzina: Anita, in the first few weeks of President Trump's administration, I just remember the president signing a myriad of executive orders. He's continued to use executive orders as a way to get his policies through how effective has that strategy been for the president so far?

Anita: It's mixed. I will say a lot of presidents do that. I remember when President Obama, not less, maybe in the beginning and more later when Congress just wouldn't pass things that he wanted to pass and he said, I'm going to use my phone and my pen and I still remember it. That was really alluding to the fact that he was going to sign in executive orders. It's been mixed.

Some of them, you look at them and you say, that doesn't really do that much. It's an executive order to study something or to put a task force together and others he's tried to do something that's been much more significant I'll remember right at the beginning of the administration where one of the first thing he signed was the travel ban. Remember that was a big promise he made in 2016 to stop Muslims or some Muslims from coming into this country. He tried that three different times, they were contested or challenged in court and finally one stack. The third iteration of that did stay.

Tanzina: One place where the president has relied on executive orders is with immigration. He's used 400 executive orders, actions so far to attempt to shut down asylum/refugee admissions. How successful has he been there? Success depends on how you define it. The president's strategy has really been to dissuade people from entering the country rather than to deport them.

Anita: This is where he's had more significant role than some other issues. We mentioned the travel ban, he has talked a lot about deporting everyone, all the illegal people who are here illegally, that didn't happen, but he has carved into that and cut into that and he's also cut into people that could come here. I remember one of the-- This year, one of the most significant things he did was stop foreign workers from coming. And he basically said, "I'm not going to give visas to them." That's a huge number of people we're talking about.

We're talking about people with no skills, we're talking about people with high skills or all of the above. He said he did that because of the coronavirus, but really with that order, he was able to do that. Another significant immigration one was reducing the number of refugees he was allowing. It reached about 85,000 during the Obama term and now he's looking at next year at 10,000 or 20,000. It's really been reduced.

Tanzina: Anita, in an interview with NBC News, Stephen Miller who's an advisor to the president, particularly on issues of immigration laid out in a very aggressive plan should the president be reelected to include a freeze on immigration and punishing sanctuary cities, is this along the lines of what the president has already outlined and is it something that appeals to his base should he be reelected?

Anita: Yes, it really does appeal to his base. One of the remarkable things about 2020 is that this election really wasn't about immigration. I thought it would be, but obviously, because of the pandemic, things got changed around, but I think still that message is there, he still wants to do certain things. What Stephen Miller was talking about were things that he had tried to do and didn't accomplish or along the same vein.

I do think that we're going to see more of that come to come next term if he's elected. Interestingly, he mentioned sanctuary cities. That's something that President Trump has been trying on and the courts have pushed him off of that. He's not been able to defend sanctuary cities.

Tanzina: We should mention that New York is one of those cities. Anita Kumar is a white house correspondent for Politico. Anita, thanks so much for going through this report card with us.

Anita: Sure. Thanks for having me.

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