MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace: 'All he had to do is not put on jammies and crawl into bed with Vladimir Putin -- and he couldn't even do that'

MSNBC host and former George W. Bush staffer Nicolle Wallace spoke with former Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul about the alarmingly low expectations that President Donald Trump had going into the Helsinki meeting with Vladimir Putin.

"I can't think of a better word," he began. "This was so easy, Nicolle. This was so easy for President Trump. We had such low expectations for this summit. All he had to do, just push back a little bit on some basic things to look like he was defending America's national interest, our sovereignty. And instead, he chose very deliberately not to push back on Vladimir Putin and on the contrary, lavish praise on him."

He also noted that he looks at foreign policy not from a Democratic or Republican perspective but from the vantage point of how it advanced American national interest. "And I can't think of one place where that happened today," he said.

"Can I just disagree slightly?" began Wallace. "I think the bar was even lower than what you describe. All he had to do was not put on jammies and crawl under the covers with Vladimir Putin and he couldn't do that. He didn't have to push back at all for his supporters and all the Republicans we put up before to simply give him a pass. He didn't even meet his own low bar for not screwing this up."

Watch the full discussion below: