- Biden criticized Manchin for stringing out BBB negotiations before talks fell apart, per Rolling Stone.
- Manchin has not committed to passing a smaller spending bill after killing it late last year.
- Democrats intend to take one last shot to approve Biden's domestic agenda in the coming weeks.
President Joe Biden accused Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia of backpedaling his support on his economic agenda during a critical meeting in December, according to a new Rolling Stone report.
The high-stakes meeting came as the pair negotiated on Biden's $2 trillion Build Back Better spending plan. At a Dec. 14 meeting at the White House, Biden criticized Manchin for backtracking from an earlier pledge he made to back the sprawling package, two anonymous sources briefed on the meeting told Rolling Stone. The president spent months courting Manchin in back-to-back meetings through the fall.
A Manchin spokesperson told Rolling Stone that was "not a correct accounting of this meeting" without specifying further. The White House didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Senate Democrats quickly pivoted from a self-imposed Christmas deadline to approve the social and climate spending bill and instead embarked on a last-ditch push to pass voting rights legislation. Then on Dec. 19, Manchin came out in opposition to the House bill, triggering an angry White House statement that blamed the conservative West Virginia Democrat for tanking the talks with a "sudden and inexplicable reversal."
Manchin had never publicly committed support for the House bill. He often criticized it for trying to establish an array of temporary programs, saying that disguised its true cost.
His resistance sank a plan aimed at devoting large sums to childcare, healthcare, checks to parents, and clean energy. Without his vote, Democrats were unable to send the bill to Biden's desk over unified Republican resistance. It has since stalled in the 50-50 Senate while Manchin focused his attention on other priorities like elections reform.
Senate Democrats intend to try once more to win over Manchin on a smaller spending bill focused on cutting prescription drug costs, reducing the deficit, and stepping up taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Manchin has floated a summer deadline to pass a bill without committing to it.
Some in the party remain skeptical that Manchin could be swayed on another bill, even if he wields outsized influence on its size and scope.
"I reject the notion that we should look to Joe Manchin as the oracle on what is best for America," Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York told Politico. "He's the saboteur of the Build Back Better Act so I see no point in placating the implacable. I have trouble grasping the political logic there."