The panel on MSNBC's Morning Joe said Friday that President Obama has not pushed back against Russian President Vladimir Putin the way other American leaders have stood up to Russia in the past.
Host Joe Scarborough, who was wearing pajamas with co-host Mika Brzezinski, asked Washington Post columnist David Ignatius how relations between the United States and Russia have become so bad that they are "dangerous."
Ignatius said that Putin was still upset because of the fall of the Soviet Union and has been trying to rebuild the pride of Russia,
"He found Barack Obama somebody who was, seemed to be acceding to that Russian effort and not pushing back in the way that American presidents sometimes do, and I think Putin began to take advantage of that and see Obama as pliable," Ignatius said.
Ignatius also said that President-elect Donald Trump may find the right policy and the right balance in how to handle Russia.
Trump recently said that he was interested in growing America's nuclear arsenal in what some have seen as an attempt to restart an arms race with Russia.
