It’s hard to imagine two more dissimilar legislators than the Brooklyn-born democratic socialist, who represents a state with nearly 200 organic dairy farms, and the product of coal-mining Farmington, W.Va., who earned his degree in business from West Virginia University on a football scholarship.

Shortly after this exchange, the two tried a Capitol Hill peace conference, ending with Manchin’s slightly mocking comment in the Senate parking lot: “Never give up, Bernie.”

Last month, Sanders accused Manchin of “intentionally sabotaging” Biden’s agenda. “We continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not,” Sanders fumed to ABC News’s Martha Raddatz on July 17.

Brushing Sanders off, but entertaining private pleas from moderate Democrats, some of whom no doubt quietly sympathized with his stand all along, Manchin two days later approached Schumer to talk. The rest is history.