was told by adults on all sides that holy hell was about to rain down on him.

Seems plausible this is exactly what happened.

Manchin said he favored the idea of a “mini-primary” process before a candidate to replace Biden was chosen. Asked if he thought Harris was too liberal, Manchin said, “Absolutely.”

Moments earlier, Manchin was asked on CNN if he would run against Harris. “I don’t know,” he said.

but then

“Let me make it very clear to you … I am not going to be a candidate for president. I am a candidate for [remainder of this quote soft-launching a podcast has been omitted because I am sick of listening to this jerk off]” Manchin told CBS television shortly after refusing to rule out a run in another interview.

So, yeah, I wonder if he got a terse phone call between those two interviews.