Former Democrat Senator Says Biden Allies Threatened His Family Over Build Back Better Vote [WATCH]

Former Senator Joe Manchin said he was the target of an organized, months-long pressure campaign led by well-funded groups aligned with then-President Joe Biden to force his support for the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill in 2021.

Manchin made the disclosure during an appearance Thursday on the All-In Podcast, where he described receiving repeated death threats, harassment, and protests near his home and family during negotiations over the massive spending package.

“I told him, I said, ‘Mr. President, I’m sorry, man, I can’t get there.’ And they tried for eight months to beat up on me. I mean, I had to have security,” Manchin said.

The former West Virginia senator, who left the Democratic Party and became an independent before retiring, said the campaign escalated to the point that Capitol Police escorted him to and from work for his protection.

“It’s pretty intense, but I can tell you one thing: when every day the Capitol Police call you and say your death threats are serious right now — ‘We’ll meet you down where you live, and we’ll bring you to work, and we’ll take you back home’ — you know things are pretty serious. I never wanted to know the extent, but I knew they were serious,” Manchin said.

He added that the threats extended to his family.

“Then one time they said, ‘This is really getting serious now, because now we got things — they know where your children go to school, they know where your grandchildren are, where your kids live.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is crazy.’”

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Co-host Chamath Palihapitiya asked what the pressure campaign looked like in practice.

“Because it’s not just the President exactly as you write in the book — it’s people showing up at your house. It’s people with little kayaks with protest signs around your boat. It’s pretty intense,” Palihapitiya said.

Manchin confirmed that the protests outside his Washington, D.C. houseboat were coordinated and sustained.

“It was not random. It was well planned,” he said.

He described how paid activists in kayaks circled his residence on the Potomac River for hours at a time while others demonstrated near his office.

WOW! Fmr. Sen. Joe Manchin says Biden started a pressure campaign against him w/ death threats & paid protestors for not supporting the ‘Build Back Better’ spending bill

“They tried for eight months to beat up me. I mean, I had to have security.” pic.twitter.com/XY2jvhNW5j

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) October 24, 2025

The senator’s resistance to the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better proposal eventually forced the White House and congressional Democrats to scale down the bill dramatically.

The final version, renamed the Inflation Reduction Act, passed at roughly $740 billion — one-fifth of the original size.

The legislation was signed into law in August 2022, but its passage followed intense intraparty conflict.

Manchin’s refusal to endorse the original proposal made him the focal point of public criticism from progressive activists and organizations that supported the administration’s agenda.

Manchin told the podcast that the hostility he faced was not organic but orchestrated by major Democratic-affiliated groups.

“None of these acts were spontaneous,” he said.

“It was all part of a well-crafted plan to pressure me into going along with the President’s agenda.”

Reports from that period support Manchin’s account of sustained protests. In November 2021, climate activists from the group Third Act Movement surrounded his vehicle in a parking garage.

The group, founded earlier that year, focuses on environmental activism and opposition to fossil fuel funding.

Capitol Police data shows the rise in political threats nationwide.

In September 2025, the agency reported handling approximately 14,000 threat assessment cases annually, reflecting the growing prevalence of harassment and intimidation directed at public officials.

Manchin’s account adds new details to the behind-the-scenes tensions that defined the Democratic Party’s legislative battles during Biden’s term.

His description of the pressure campaign — and its impact on his security and family — has renewed discussion about political coercion and the methods advocacy organizations use to influence elected officials.

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