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This week, Matt and Brian look ahead to looming questions that, under normal circumstances, would be paint-by-numbers developments in a presidential election year: running-mate selection and debates.

* President Biden recently confirmed that he intends to debate Donald Trump. Is this a wise decision, and how should he approach the task?

* Do Biden’s communication and strategic arms have the right acumen to see Biden through debates and other, similar challenges?

* Can Trump have a running mate without attempting to steal his or her money or implicate them in the destruction of American democracy?

Then, for paid subscribers, Brian and Matt apply questions raised by the new movie Civil War to real-life, Trump-era political violence incitement. With Trump running free from consequences, and promising to pardon insurrectionists, what’s to stop him from applying the logic of January 6-style mob violence to other goals he may have? Is the logical endpoint of Trumpism a full-scale rebellion from one direction or another, or something slower-burning and harder to discourage? What can liberals and Democrats do to persuade people that the threat is real, without essentially guilt-tripping people into voting blue? We hope you enjoy the conversation, and if you’d like to listen to the whole thing, you can upgrade to paid for a private feed that gets you access to the complete Politix archive and all future episodes.

Further reading:

* The New York Post reports that the White House wanted to drive Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre out of her job, but chickened out.

* RELATEDLY: Joe Biden’s uncle really did crash his warplane in a part of the world where there were lots of cannibals.

* Brian on why Democratic frustrations with the mainstream press were bound to boil over, and where things go from here.

* Shelby Talcott on how nobody in GOP politics has any idea what Trump wants in a running mate because he’s distracted, selfish, and susceptible to flattery.

* Brian on Civil War (with spoilers).