The charge is violent especially coming from a former president of the United States.

Barack Obama on Saturday accused Republicans of threatening democracy ahead of a particularly close local election, seen as a national test of Joe Biden's popularity as he fiercely negotiates a massive investment plan with Congress.

The former White House tenant had moved to Richmond, in the conservative south of the state, to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe, 64, candidate for governor of Virginia.

This support was needed for whoever is neck-and-neck with pro-Trump Republican Glenn Youngkin, 54, as the November 2 ballot approaches.

The candidate and his "fleece"

In front of a few hundred enthusiastic young activists, Barack Obama said Glenn Yugkin would cut teaching positions, reduce access to abortion and support Donald Trump's claims that the presidential election was stolen from him. “To my knowledge, the main message from Terry's opponent is that he's a guy like everyone else because he wears fleece. And he accuses schools of brainwashing our children ”. “He also said he wanted to have the voting machines used in the last ballot checked. (…) And we are supposed to believe that he will defend our democracy? Obama asked.

Joe Biden won Virginia 10 points clear in 2020, but Terry McAuliffe's lead in the polls has melted over the weeks, and it is now within the margin of error.

Obama, who remains the most popular Democrat in the United States, wanted to galvanize African-American voters, a key electorate in this southern state.

"We don't have the right to be tired"

Recognizing that he understands why one can be "tired" of politics, he recalled having met during his first presidential campaign which brought him to the White House in 2008 an African-American voter of 106 years who had mobilized for him. "And I said to myself, if she's not tired, I don't have the right to be tired." "If John Lewis (figure of the fight for civil rights who died in 2020) was not tired, we do not have the right to be tired," he hammered under applause.

Before Obama, First Lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and one of the Democratic Party's rising stars, Stacey Abrams, traveled to Virginia to campaign for Terry McAuliffe.

The American president himself is expected there next week.

A Democrat victory would give momentum to the massive investment program that the left wing of the Democratic Party is seeking to push through Congress.

Failure, on the other hand, could prompt more caution from the moderate wing of the party, which is still reluctant to approve some $ 3 trillion in spending.

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