Former president Barack Obama cast Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia as an existential struggle for core democratic institutions, hours after a recording was made public of President Trump pressuring an official of the state to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss there.

“Tomorrow is Election Day in Georgia and the stakes could not be higher,” the former president wrote on Twitter on Monday afternoon. “We’re seeing how far some will go to retain power and threaten the fundamental principles of our democracy. But our democracy isn’t about any individual, even a president — it’s about you.”

While his language was somewhat veiled, a person close to Mr. Obama said the statement was in response to the recording, in which Mr. Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to overturn the results of November’s election.

Late Sunday, when news of the call broke, Mr. Obama’s close friend, former Attorney General Eric Holder, posted a screen capture of the federal statute stipulating that it is a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for any “person” to “knowingly and willfully” intimidate, threaten or coerce officials to overturn the results of “a fair and impartially conducted election process.”

Over the last several weeks, Mr. Obama has confined his political tweets to general get-out-the-vote messages on behalf of the Democratic Senate candidates, the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and his usual end-of-year social media fare — including lists of his favorite books and songs.

For the first three years of Mr. Trump’s presidency, Mr. Obama steered clear of engaging with his successor directly, emerging only to counter falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims, including Mr. Trump’s charge that the former president personally authorized the wiretapping of Trump Tower in 2016.

That all changed during the homestretch of the 2020 general election campaign, when Mr. Obama delivered an impassioned denunciation of Mr. Trump during the virtual Democratic National Convention.

Later, Mr. Obama embarked on a brief end-of-campaign barnstorming tour on behalf of Democrats in which he ridiculed Mr. Trump — going so far as to suggest his demand for affirmation stemmed from lackluster attendance at his childhood birthday parties.

“Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid?” Mr. Obama asked during an appearance in Michigan in late October.

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