Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris said Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election revealed race as America’s “Achilles heel” and it must be dealt with as a national security issue.

“They decide to attack what is the strongest pillar of a democracy, which is free and open elections​.​ ​So let’s get Americans going after each other. What’s going to get heat? And they tried out a bunch of different things. And you know what caught heat? ​​The issue of race. So Russia exposed America’s Achilles heel,” ​she told NBC’s “Meet the Press​” in an interview that aired Sunday.

She said by focusing on the deep divisions surrounding racial politics in the US, Russia allowed those who “want to marginalize the conversation about race” to say: “Oh, well, that’s identity politics or that’s this, or that’s that.”

​”Now it is also a national security issue. And we need to deal with it. And we need to deal with it,” ​the former attorney general of California said.

She also said that “racism is real in this country” and that it was around long before President Trump entered the White House.

​”​The reality is that these are forms of hate that are not new to our country, which have, in the history of our country, taken lethal proportion. And still today take on lethal proportion​,” she said on NBC. “And so I believe that the conversation has to be about how we are going to speak truth about the history, and then address it​.”

She referred to the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, last week in which the gunman targeted “Mexicans” and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Mississippi that rounded up 680 workers at chicken plants as evidence.

“When I look at what’s happening now​ … just most recently, with the announcement of the raids from months ago, much less what happened in El Paso, to the most recent raids, where hundreds of people were picked up,” she said.​ ​“Many were released because they probably shouldn’t have been picked up in the first place. People are afraid in our country​.”