A story I've heard is that Manchin and Joementia had had some chummy discussions in which they agreed to let things cool of until next year, and Joementia's peeps would cool it on attacking Manchin. And then one of Joementia's spokesNPCs unloaded on Manchin. Since rando Proggies have been harassing Manchin for weeks and this newest unloading would likely lead to more of the same, Manchin was quite unappreciative, even though the back-stabbing was done with a rubber knife.