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On Sunday, a U.S Senator Kamala Harris launched her campaign for the presidency. She seems to be a rebuke of President Donald Trump and his connections to Russia. Harris pointed out that foreign powers are infecting the White House like malware. She was speaking before a rally that drew a larger crowd than the launch of Barack Obama’s campaign for president 10 years ago. It was a pointed comment at a time when foreign influence and the use of cyber-attacks are some of the most contentious topics.

Harris has been a key member of the U.S Senate intelligence committee. The committee is investigating whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Harris has refrained from blaming Trump of any wrongdoing during her time on the committee. But she has slammed Russia for trying to turn Americans against one another and called Moscow an adversary.

Harris said during a Senate intelligence committee hearing in August, “I think we’re all clear that Russia attacked our country during the 2016 election and that they are continuing to attack us today. Russia not only attacked one of our most sacred democratic values, which is a free and fair election but also, I believe, our very American identity. The Russian government came into the house of the American family and manipulated us”.

She added, “We must take this seriously in that context and understand that when we debate as we did in 2016, one of the most important debates that we have, which is who’ll be the leader of our country, the Russians exploited our nation’s discourse to play into our deepest fear”.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from California, also pointed out that “it’s very interesting to see the kinds of people the president of the U.S surrounded himself with”. She is bothersome that Trump appears to be giving Russian President Vladimir Putin much of what he wants, including questioning the value of NATO. It is noteworthy that the Trump administration lifted sanctions on companies linked to Kremlin ally Oleg Deripaska on Sunday. These companies were sanctioned over Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.