Former President Barack Obama exhorted Virginians to support Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s candidacy for governor, warning of the dire consequences for the state and the country if he were to lose.

“We’re at a turning point right now both here and in America and around the world. There's a mood out there, we see it: a politics of meanness,” Obama told an estimated crowd of around 2,000 people on a sun-dappled afternoon at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Obama presented the choice for Virginians as between McAuliffe, who he said would keep moving the state forward, and Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin, who he said has been “encouraging the lies and conspiracy theories that we’ve had to live through all this time,” referring to the ongoing attempt by former President Donald Trump to falsely claim that the 2020 election was illegitimate.

Obama also said Younkin has attempted to “quietly cultivate support from those who seek to tear down our democracy.”

Obama mentioned a recent campaign event hosted by grassroots Republicans in support of Youngkin, where attendees recited the Pledge of Allegiance to an American flag that they said was carried in D.C. on Jan. 6, the day of the violent assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.