(Headline USA) Former President Barack Obama incited a crowd over the weekend at Richmond’s Virginia Commonwealth University with a fiery diatribe that seemed to deflect from what many regard as the key issues in the race—the Marxist cultural warfare being promoted in the nation’s schools.
“We don’t have time to be wasted on these phony trumped-up culture wars,” Obama ranted.
But conservatives responded in full force, according to The Blaze.
“Sorry, but McAuliffe saying that parents shouldn’t be in charge of their children’s education and the Loudoun County school board lying to parents about sexual assaults in bathrooms isn’t ‘trumped up cultural wars,'” said Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro, one of many to slam the gaslighting remarks.
Glenn Youngkin, the Republican candidate, meanwhile, was able to keep it positive while still trolling Obama for his superficial leadership.
Hey @BarackObama, I hear you’re in town trying to bail out @TerryMcAuliffe‘s campaign. If you’re up for a game, I’m ready! pic.twitter.com/sBcmObowZ1
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 23, 2021
Thank you, President Obama!
How about a game of one-on-one? ? pic.twitter.com/l1Xqrop3kT
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 23, 2021
Original story below:
Former President Barack Obama offered a sharp rebuke of the Republican candidate for Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, as he encouraged voters on Saturday to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the closely watched race.
Obama accused Youngkin of portraying himself as a friendly everyman while encouraging what Obama called “lies and conspiracy theories” about widespread voting fraud in the 2020 elections.
Former President Donald Trump has continued to pursue election integrity, despite fierce resistance from the Democratic Party, Republican Party leadership, Big Tech, the corporate media, and the federal government.
“Either he actually believes in the same conspiracy theories that resulted in a mob, or he doesn’t believe it but he is willing to go along with it, to say or do anything to get elected.
And maybe that’s worse … because that says something about character,” Obama said.
Youngkin, a former private equity executive and a first-time candidate, initially made election integrity the centerpiece of his campaign and refused for months to say whether President Joe Biden was legitimately elected.
He has since said that Biden was, and that there was not widespread fraud in last year’s elections.
Obama described McAuliffe — the state’s governor from 2014-2018 — as an experienced, steady hand and told a crowd of what organizers said was 2,000 people gathered outdoors at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond that the Nov. 2 election would “show the country and the world that we’re not going to indulge in our worst instincts.”
The former president said he understood voters are worn down, both from the country’s divisive politics and the strain of the pandemic. But he said there’s too much at stake to not cast a ballot.
“We don’t have time to be tired. What is required is sustained effort,” he said.
Asked for comment, a Youngkin campaign spokesman called Obama’s remarks “false statements” and accused The Associated Press of “indulging the fantasies of the Terry and the left because they can’t run on their failed record and radical vision for the future.”
The Youngkin campaign has said election security is a bipartisan concern and has tried to draw a comparison between fraud today and the 2000 presidential election, when a Supreme Court ruling decided the winner and McAuliffe blasted the decision and said the election had been stolen.
McAuliffe is seeking a return to office in the only state where the incumbent cannot serve consecutive terms. Less than two weeks out from the Nov. 2 election, polls show a tight race in a state Biden carried by 10 percentage points last fall.
While New Jersey is also holding an election for governor on Nov. 2, it’s the Virginia race that’s grabbed national attention as a possible indication of voter sentiment before next year’s midterms.
Numerous Democratic elected officials including U.S. Reps. Donald McEachin and Bobby Scott, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Ralph Northam also delivered remarks at Saturday’s event.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.
