On Wednesday, in conversation with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) shared some sharply critical thoughts on President Donald Trump's defense of using political dirt from foreign adversaries.

"These are stunning comments from the president," said Ruhle. "What's your reaction?"

"Well, Stephanie, listen," said Harris, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination. "He's the commander in chief, and has a duty and a responsibility to the American people to be a defender, if not the greatest defender of our democracy. But to quite the contrary, what we hear tonight is that he is yet again open to the idea of working with foreign governments to undermine the integrity of our election system. It's outrageous and it tells me the guy just doesn't understand the job and can't do it very well."

Richard Painter, former ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush was furious about the recent news that President Donald Trump is more than willing to accept help from foreign powers to undermine his political opponents.

In an interview with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, Painter said that the acts by Russia and other foreign government are an example of "subversion and foreign espionage." Meanwhile, the president of the United States finds the act acceptable.

Painter warned that if Congress doesn't open an impeachment inquiry then he'll continue to do it, time and time again. "We're going to have a repeat of 2016," he said. If Republicans in the Senate are unwilling to put the country first, Painter said they need to be kicked out in 2020.

On Wednesday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," political analyst and former White House staffer David Gergen explained just how problematic it is that President Donald Trump once again embraced the idea of accepting dirt on his political opponents from a foreign geopolitical adversary.

"It seems pretty clear in that he's saying if he was Don Jr., and what Don Jr. did was totally appropriate, not to call the FBI, even though he was approached by someone saying they were representing the Russian government."

"Anybody who thought about this, the first thing they would do is call a lawyer for the organization they're working for and say, 'what is the right thing to do with this bombshell I've just received?'" said Gergen. "You know, I went through this way back when in the Carter versus Reagan race of 1980. We got a briefing book that just appeared over the transcript that belonged to the other side, and when we found out more about it, we just called the FBI, and we wanted to make sure our skirts were clean, and that's the best position you're in."