Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin appeared ready to fight a climate protester after a group of them interrupted his Friday event at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
A “youth-led” group calling itself Climate Defiance claimed responsibility for the disruption, which appeared to involve around seven protesters.
Video posted by the group shows activists chanting “Protect our futures! Not your profits!” One protester can be seen standing over the seated senator, telling Manchin that, by supporting the fossil fuel industry, he had “sold our futures and got rich doing it.”
BREAKING: we just called Joe Manchin a sick fuck. We humiliated him in front of a herd of Harvard elites. He squared up. We held firm. Barbaric murderer, hideous fiend, he torches humanity and laughs. pic.twitter.com/1ajrQsKnbJ
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) March 1, 2024
Manchin drew the ire of his party’s green wing after convincing Joe Biden to speed up permitting on a West Virginia gas pipeline in exchange for his support of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. (RELATED: Joe Manchin Reveals Whether He Will Run For President)
The protestor goes on to call Manchin a “sick fuck,” prompting the moderate Democrat to shoot out of his chair and step toward the heckler.
A man who appears to be either a security guard or one of Manchin’s aides then steps between the two, calming the senator before seizing the protester by his arms and hurling him through the open door.
Hahahahahaha I keep saying you can just throw these guys around like nothing, it’s easy hahaha pic.twitter.com/YV2CmShut7
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) March 1, 2024
This you “holding firm” bro? https://t.co/P8G5sBR6B1 pic.twitter.com/qMInXUGr6p
— Geoffrey Ingersoll (@GPIngersoll) March 1, 2024
“BREAKING: we just called Joe Manchin a sick fuck,” Climate Defiance posted to Twitter on Friday. “We humiliated him in front of a herd of Harvard elites. He squared up. We held firm. Barbaric murderer, hideous fiend, he torches humanity and laughs.” (RELATED: Video Shows Construction Crew Help Cops Remove Climate Protesters From Road)
The Kennedy school issued its own statement, noting that “protestors disrupted for a few minutes an [Institute of Politics] study group in which Senator Joe Manchin was the guest speaker.”
“A Harvard University police officer ordered the protesters to leave the Kennedy School campus, and the protesters complied,” the statement continued. “Senator Manchin continued his discussion with IOP students after the disruption. The Harvard University Police Department and the Kennedy School are reviewing the incident.”
Manchin, a former governor who won his Senate seat in a 2010 special election, is the only West Virginia Democrat in Congress. He is not seeking reelection in 2024.