Kamala Harris says the issue of race in the U.S. is now an issue of national security

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) told NBC's Chuck Todd that domestic racial issues in the United States are now a national security issue during an interview that aired on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press.

Harris argued that the issue of race is the U.S.'s "achilles heel," which was exposed by Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Harris said that when Russian operatives were trying to attack the U.S.'s "strongest pillar of democracy" (free and open elections), they "tried out a bunch of different things" before race "caught heat."

Harris' point was that racial issues can't be marginalized any longer. "For those who want to marginalize the conversation about race and racial inequities and say, 'Oh, well, that's identity politics or that's this or that's that.' Guess what? Now it's also a national security issue," she said. "And we need to deal with it."

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.