Welcome to the RedState Weekly Briefing  — where we take a quick look at the week’s most viewed stories in case you missed any of them. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down with this 21st Century Weekend Edition of your favorite (online) publication!

#1 – WATCH: Joe Biden Terrorizes a Young Child at NATO Summit by Licking Her Repeatedly — by Bonchie 

Now, I’m sure Biden supporters will explain this away as Biden just being an innocent old guy who likes babies, but I don’t think that washes here. I’m not saying that I know there’s anything nefarious behind this intention, but I am confident in saying he’s way over the line in acting this way toward a young child he has no familial connection to.

For context, I like kids. I have several of them. My friends also have kids, and while I’ll joke around and tease them, I’d never physically put my mouth on one of them. For Biden to do that to a random child in a crowd is so far past what constitutes acceptable behavior that it’s hard to understand. Are none of his aides brave enough to tell him how this looks and that he needs to stop?

#2 – Reports: Bud Light in Big Trouble, Hit With Costco ‘Death Star’ — by Nick Arama 

The company doesn’t seem to understand how to dig themselves out of the mess that they’ve created. They keep putting out ads, like the one I wrote about earlier, that just show how clueless they are on the matter. The ad showed a storm during a picnic blowing over a Bud Light can and a woman devouring a watermelon, oblivious to the consequences of that storm. It was a perfect metaphor for the storm that hit the company and the oblivious way in which they responded.

But if new reports are accurate, they may be facing some more trouble from one of the biggest chains in the country, Costco.

Reports are now circulating, with pictures indicating some Bud Light products in some locations have gotten the “Death Star” from Costco. You can see what it is — the little asterisk in the upper right-hand corner of the sales description.

#3 – Joe Manchin May Be About to Get His Revenge on Democrats Who Betrayed Him — by Bonchie 

What should be more concerning for the far-left is that Manchin has nothing to lose. It looks increasingly unlikely that he’ll run for re-election to the US Senate, given Jim Justice’s entry into the race as a heavy favorite. Presidential campaigns are lucrative on multiple levels. Why wouldn’t Manchin want to jet around the country, presenting himself as the moderate alternative to the two-party system?

Obviously, he wouldn’t win. But if Manchin takes even 2-3 percent of the vote, it could heavily affect who wins the presidential race. I actually suspect he could do better than that, given his name recognition and the statistical unpopularity of the two current front-runners. The people who would vote for Manchin are likely to be center-left independents who wouldn’t vote Republican anyway, and that’s what has Democrats so thoroughly spooked.

#4 – ‘I Made a Huge Mistake’: Tucker Carlson Talks Covering Politics, Why He Was Fired, and Donald Trump — by Bonchie 

While speculation about why and how Carlson left Fox so abruptly ran rampant for weeks, in the end, if he says he has no idea why he was booted, we’re left to either believe him or not. What’s done is done; it’s just been one of those things about which speculators love to speculate.

Brand pressed Carlson on whether he — or Fox — had a specific viewpoint that led to his ouster. Carlson said Fox always allowed him to speak his mind, but he also pointed to a “red line” at the “Fair and Balanced” network on the Russia-Ukraine War.

#5 – Republicans Melt Down Over Smoking Gun Hunter Biden Email That Gives Away the Game — by Nick Arama 

The Biden excuse has been that he wanted to fire the prosecutor because he was corrupt and wasn’t pursuing the investigations. But as we noted, if there were no investigations, then what were they engaging Blue Star for? This shows that the excuse is bunk. And there was an investigation going on, as the evidence showed. His office seized property from Zlochevsky, after a raid on his home on Feb. 2, 2016. That was publicly announced in the Kyiv Post on February 4. Just a coincidence, do not connect the dots, but Hunter Biden began following Antony Blinken on Feb. 4. The prosecutor was then canned in March. Shokin has signed an affidavit saying he was investigating Burisma when he was removed.

But there’s another important thing to note here, and it’s important to remember what the NY Post story that was suppressed was about — it was the October 14, 2020 story about the laptop email that revealed the meeting that Vadym Pozharskyi had with Joe Biden. First, the NY Post’s story blew up Joe Biden’s claim that he didn’t talk to his son about his business. But it also opened the door to Pozharskyi and all this information that was potentially very damning to Joe Biden. That’s why the powers that be had to sit on that information.