Former President Barack Obama alleged that Republicans are "trying to systematically prevent" American citizens from voting during a speech in Richmond, Virginia campaigning for the commonwealth's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
"All across the country, Democrats are trying to make it easier to vote, not make it harder to vote and push back on Republicans who are trying to systematically prevent ordinary citizens from making their voices heard," Obama said Saturday. "You have to ask yourself, why is it Republicans don't want you to vote?"
The campaign for Virginia's GOP gubernatorial candidate, Glenn Youngkin, slammed Obama's comments as "false statements."
"Glenn has addressed this multiple times before Obama came to Virginia to bail Terry out, but instead of writing a story about the former President’s false statements, the press is indulging Terry’s fantasies and lies because he can’t run on his failed record and radical vision for the future," Youngkin spokesperson Christian Martinez told Fox News.
While the former president did not cite examples of instances where Republicans are attempting to stifle the vote of Americans, Democrats have previously called election integrity laws in Georgia and Texas tools of "voter suppression."
Earlier this year, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams said in an interview that, if election laws like the one in Georgia are passed and upheld in court, "we shut duly eligible citizens out of participation in setting the course of the country."
And President Joe Biden falsely claimed in March that Georgia's law "ends voting hours early," remarks that earned him "Four Pinocchios" from The Washington Post, noting at the time that "not a single expert we consulted who has studied the law understood why Biden made this claim, as this was the section of law that expanded early voting for many Georgians."
Obama's comments come as McAuliffe and Youngkin are preparing for next week's gubernatorial election, which, according to the latest Monmouth University survey, is tied, with both candidates polling at 46 percent among likely voters.