By Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade and Ryan Lizza

With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

HAPPENING SOON — The Texas Senate will vote at 11:30 a.m. on whether to remove KEN PAXTON as attorney general. Live updates from The Texas Tribune

BIDEN’S NEW FAVE OP-ED WRITER — Rep. KEN BUCK (R-Colo.), a longtime House Freedom Caucus member, writes in WaPo that the GOP push for the impeachment of President JOE BIDEN is “disgraceful” and lacking evidence of real wrongdoing by the president.

“Without doubt, HUNTER BIDEN’s shady business deals undermined America’s image and our anti-corruption goals, and his conduct was thoroughly reprehensible. What’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption,” Buck writes.

Graf after graf, Buck takes on accusations hurled by members of his own party while also attacking Democrats for their 2019 impeachment of then-President DONALD TRUMP. He concludes: “Trump’s impeachment in 2019 was a disgrace to the Constitution and a disservice to Americans. The GOP’s reprise in 2023 is no better.”

You better believe this is what the White House is reading.

Spokesman IAN SAMS texts us this morning: “When House Republicans themselves are writing entire columns refuting the allegations underpinning impeachment and debunking the entire thing as a conspiracy theory, Speaker [KEVIN] McCARTHY ought to pay attention and realize [Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE] and the far right are leading him into la la land.”

A lot of the autoworker strike consternation could come from communication problems between UAW President Shawn Fain and President Joe Biden. | Susan Walsh, File/AP Photo

STRIKE WATCH — We’re now more than 24 hours into the first-ever simultaneous strike of the Big Three automakers, and the fever surrounding the initial walkoff is starting to fade a bit. With about 13,000 of their members picketing in three states, the United Auto Workers are expected to get back to the bargaining table this morning.

It’s anyone’s guess how long it will take to get a deal, but the sides remain far apart on wages, retiree health care and other sticking points, and the UAW is threatening to progressively expand the strike if talks drag out. This could take a while.

So it’s a good moment to step back and look at how we got here and what it all means.

First, on the economics … Our Zachary Warmbrodt is out with a perceptive look at how extreme pay gaps between CEOs and rank-and-file workers have become “one of the United Auto Workers’ most potent political rallying cries.”

It’s not just an issue in the auto industry, of course, and it’s helped fuel a revitalization of the labor movement, Zach writes.

“Exploding executive compensation has bedeviled concerned policymakers for years, with attempts at imposing transparency measures and greater corporate accountability doing little to slow the trend. But the UAW strike is putting a fresh target on CEO pay at a precarious moment for big business, with populism holding sway on the left and the right.”

As for the politics … The strike, as NYT’s Michael Shear reports, “is in some ways a broader test of Mr. Biden’s economic agenda beyond just his pro-union stand. It also touches on his call for higher wages for the middle class; his climate-driven push to reimagine an electric vehicle future for car companies; and his call for higher taxes for the wealthy.”

Layered over all of that, however, are ongoing tensions between Biden and the UAW, which Holly Otterbein, Adam Cancryn and Adam Wren explore in a new piece that’s a must-read for understanding the dynamics at play.

UAW President SHAWN FAIN, they report, has privately expressed his frustration with Biden, “wanting the president and other Democratic lawmakers to come out more aggressively in support of his union.”

One longtime union adviser tells Playbook that a lot of the consternation could come from “communication issues” between the newly elected Fain and Biden, who don’t have a long history with each other.

While the White House has worked on that relationship since Fain took the UAW reins earlier this year, it has been rough going. One eye-opening anecdote from the story takes place on Labor Day, shortly after Biden said he was “not worried” about an impending auto strike.

“Fain, Rep. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-Mich.) and others were marching in a Labor Day parade in Detroit when they learned of Biden’s comment. Dingell would later tell Fain that she called longtime Biden adviser STEVE RICCHETTI and screamed at him over the comment, according to a person familiar with the talk and granted anonymity to discuss details. ‘Are you out of your f---ing minds?’ Dingell said.”

What Trump is saying … Speaking to NBC’s Kristen Welker for “Meet the Press,” the former president “warned that U.S. auto workers’ jobs will move to China and accused the United Auto Workers’ leadership of failing its members.”

“The auto workers will not have any jobs, Kristen, because all of these cars are going to be made in China,” Trump said, adding: “The auto workers are being sold down the river by their leadership, and their leadership should endorse Trump.”

— Reminder: Welker debuts tomorrow as “MTP” host, the first Black person and first woman to serve as moderator in its 75-year history.

Meanwhile, on the picket line … Democrats continue to flock to the striking plants, with House leaders HAKEEM JEFFRIES (N.Y.) and KATHERINE CLARK (Mass.) planning to visit the Ford plant in Wayne, Mich., this weekend. Also expected there: Sen. JOHN FETTERMAN (Pa.) will “drive his @UAW built Ford Bronco from Braddock out to the factory” (which assembles Broncos), per an aide. Rep. MARCY KAPTUR (Ohio) is headed this morning to the picket line outside the Stellantis Jeep plant in Toledo, her team tells Playbook.

Related reads: “Why UAW workers say they are on strike,” WaPo … “Whatever the UAW Strike Outcome, Elon Musk Has Already Won,” WSJ … “Tech Fears Are Showing Up on Picket Lines,” NYT … “UAW strike could disrupt EV rollout. Environmentalists support it anyway,” POLITICO

Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

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BOEBERT SAYS SORRY — Rep. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-Colo.) apologized last night for her behavior last weekend during a showing of the “Beetlejuice” musical in her home state, closing the loop on one of the week’s weirdest political stories.

“Whether it was the excitement of seeing a much-anticipated production or the natural anxiety of being in a new environment, I genuinely did not recall vaping that evening,” her statement read in part. Read it in full, via 9News Denver’s Kyle Clark

The statement came after video surfaced showing Boebert disrupting the performance, vaping, and groping (and being groped by) the man she was with — refuting Boebert’s previous denials.

“[I]t was not my or my campaign’s intention to mislead, but we do understand the nature of how this looks,” she added. “We know we will have to work to earn your trust back and it may not happen overnight, but we will do it.”

It’s another reminder for Republican lawmakers that the Trump playbook — deny, attack and never back down no matter what — works only for Trump. Especially when you barely won reelection.

SCARY STUFF — An armed man was arrested after apparently pretending to be a security official at a ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. event yesterday in LA, Breitbart’s Joel Pollak scooped. “I’m still entertaining a hope that President Biden will allow me Secret Service protection,” Kennedy said on X.

THE FLIP SIDE OF AN INDEPENDENT DOJ — “Ties Between Joe Biden and Merrick Garland Deteriorate From Distant to Frigid,” by WSJ’s Aruna Viswanatha and Sadie Gurman: “Some Biden aides have said they see [AG MERRICK] GARLAND’s handling of the inquiries into the Biden family as driven less by a dispassionate pursuit of justice than by a punctilious desire to give the appearance that sensitive investigations are walled off from political pressure.”

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At the White House

Biden has nothing on his public schedule.

VP KAMALA HARRIS has nothing on her public schedule.

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Special counsel Jack Smith is seeking a partial gag order against Donald Trump in the election subversion criminal case. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US

1. THE LATEST TRUMP LEGAL TWIST: “Special Counsel Seeking Gag Order on Trump in Election Case,” by NYT’s Alan Feuer: “The gag order sought by the government would prevent Mr. Trump from making any statements about the identity or testimony of witnesses in the case or any remarks about anyone involved in the proceeding that could be considered ‘disparaging and inflammatory, or intimidating.’ … Within a few hours of the government’s request for a gag order, Mr. Trump attacked [special counsel JACK] SMITH both on social media and in a speech as ‘deranged.’”

2. CIVIL SERVICE SALVO: The Biden administration yesterday put forth a new regulation that would attempt to insulate the nonpartisan civil service from Republican plans to weaken its protections and politicize the bureaucracy, WaPo’s Tyler Pager and Lisa Rein report. Trump targeted the civil service late in his presidency but ran out of time; since then, a significant political apparatus has been working on plans to remove job protections from federal workers in 2025, with Trump or another GOP president. The Biden rule would keep a tighter safety net even around workers who were reclassified. Still, it could be challenged in court or undone by a future administration.

3. SPY GAMES: “China appears to have suspended spy balloon program after February shootdown, U.S. intel believes,” by CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand: “US officials believe that Chinese leaders have made a deliberate decision not to launch additional balloons since the one over the US was shot down by American fighter jets in February … The apparent suspension of the program comes as both the US and China have sought to stabilize an increasingly tense relationship.”

4. DON BEATS RON: The Florida Republican Party last night axed a requirement that presidential candidates agree to remain loyal to the party’s nominee, a clear victory for Trump, who has chafed at such loyalty pledges, Kimberly Leonard and Gary Fineout report from Orlando. Supporters of Florida Gov. RON DeSANTIS, on the flip side, had tried to get the state party to keep the pledge; their failure reflects his waning clout, even at home, vis a vis the frontrunner.

DeSantis responds: “We believe anyone who wants to run for president as a Republican should be willing to pledge their support for our eventual nominee,” said campaign press secretary BRYAN GRIFFIN. “It is surprising that anyone interested in seeing the defeat of Joe Biden in 2024 would disagree.”

More DeSantis on the trail: The governor yesterday promised that he’d issue a Day One executive order in the White House to give religious schools equivalent funding to other private schools, Bloomberg’s Hadriana Lowenkron reports. Speaking at the Pray, Vote, Stand gathering in D.C., DeSantis also said he’d establish religious freedom offices at HHS, the Education Department and the Labor Department. “Such actions would almost certainly be challenged by opponents on constitutional grounds.”

5. KERFUFFLE ON THE HILL: “Tensions flare between House GOP and Justice Dept. over witnesses,” by WaPo’s Jackie Alemany and Devlin Barrett: “A top GOP House investigator threatened to call Capitol Police to remove an FBI lawyer from a House office building Friday morning because he was unhappy that a senior FBI agent who appeared for a closed-door interview with the committee was accompanied by both a personal lawyer and an FBI lawyer … Republicans have alleged that the agent, ELVIS CHAN, was involved with a Justice Department effort to censor conservative voices on social media.”

6. SHADES OF HELSINKI: After Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN offered some praise for Trump this week, the former president responded favorably in new excerpts from his interview with Welker for tomorrow’s “Meet the Press.” “I like that he said that, because that means what I’m saying is right,” Trump said. “I would get him into a room, I’d get [Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR] ZELENSKYY into a room, then I’d bring them together and I’d have a deal worked out.” Trump also said he thought he could find a resolution to the war in Ukraine without Kyiv having to give up land to Putin.

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AI-powered tools offer valuable assistance for defenders in situations where time is of the essence. Ensuring these tools are deployed responsibly is an essential piece of the Secure AI Framework, which aims to collaboratively secure AI technology. Google is taking the first steps to build a Secure AI Framework (SAIF) for everyone by partnering with organizations like National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to foster widespread alignment. Learn more.

7. DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO: “Ramaswamy wants to end the H-1B visa program he used 29 times,” by Myah Ward: “VIVEK RAMASWAMY has vowed to ‘gut’ the system for H-1B temporary worker visas if he wins the White House. It’s the very system he’s used in the past to hire high-skilled foreign workers for the pharma company that built much of his wealth.”

8. 2025 DREAMING: The Biden administration has started to imagine its next climate policy moves in a second term, including new limits on industrial pollution in sectors where greenhouse gas emissions have gone unchecked so far, NYT’s Coral Davenport reports. That could help Biden reach his target of ending fossil fuel pollution by 2050, doing America’s part to avoid catastrophic climate change. But it carries political risks: “[T]he prospect of new mandates from Washington regarding steel and cement, the bedrock materials of American construction, could sour the swing-state union workers courted by Mr. Biden.”

9. THE PRE-MORTEM: That’s what Steve Shepard calls his latest autopsy-analysis of the GOP presidential primary polling, and why it indicates Trump is in such a dominant position over his rivals. The data show that Trump’s coalition now is disproportionately very conservative, male and non-college-educated. Perhaps most crucially, his supporters are also disproportionately certain about their candidate choice. “Essentially, the Republican primary has boiled down to a majority of voters who would pick Trump — and most of them are sure about it.”

CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 funnies

Handelsman - Times Picayune

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:

— “I Never Called Her Momma,” by The Atlantic’s Jenisha Watts: “My childhood in a crack house.”

— “‘I Shall Not Be Moved’: Inside a New York City Sumo Wrestling Club,” by GQ’s Jackson Wald: “Slowly but surely, sumo wrestling is growing in America. Meet the men finding meaning in the ancient art of pushing each other around.”

— “The Surprising Places Where Abortion Rights Are on the Ballot, and Winning,” by NYT’s Emily Bazelon

— “The Massive Guatemalan Operation That Wants to Sell Americans Their Old Clothes Back,” by Adam Minter in Bloomberg Businessweek: “The country imports 250 million pounds of used clothing a year — and the largest buyer, Megapaca, is starting a US website.”

— “Man Called Fran,” by John Jeremiah Sullivan in Harper’s: “Plumbing, the depths.”

— “Amid the Horrors of the Holocaust, Jewish Musicians Composed Songs of Survival,” by Douglas Starr in Smithsonian Magazine: “At the Terezin concentration camp, some of Europe’s top artists found solace in creating new work. Today one musician is determined to give them an encore.”

— “NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study Team Report”

— “Modernity and Its Discontents,” by Michael Anton in the Claremont Review of Books: “No one knows the way out of our present morass.”

— “The Court’s Conservative Constitutional Revolution,” by Noah Feldman in The New York Review of Books: “The bloc of conservative justices on the Supreme Court have dismantled many of the legal precedents on their hit list. What’s in store for the new term?”

Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here.

Gretchen Whitmer’s last accused kidnapping supporters to go on trial were acquitted.

Mohamed Khairullah plans to sue the Biden administration over a terrorism watchlist.

Ketanji Brown Jackson honored the girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

Evan Gershkovich met with the U.S. ambassador to Russia.

Samuel Lazar’s Jan. 6 case remains largely a mystery.

OUT AND ABOUT — American Moment held an event on “Theology of American Statecraft: The Christian Case for Immigration Restriction” on Wednesday night, with speakers Russ Vought, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Pastor Douglas Wilson and Jeff Shafer. Also SPOTTED: Troup Hemenway, Alexa Walker, Katy Faust, Luke Macias, Wesley Denton, Nate Fischer, Micah Meadowcroft, Wade Miller and Emma Freire.

— SPOTTED at a Blue Star Families reception Thursday night at Dog Tag Bakery, where Steve Scully interviewed Kara Swisher: Craig Newmark, Kathy Roth-Douquet, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman, Senay Bulbul, Caroline Edwards, Dan Koh, Teresa Carlson, Brianna Keilar, Peter Neal, Tammy Haddad, Tina Tchen, Kelley McCormick, Sheila Casey, David Chavern and Ted Johnson.

— SPOTTED at Jackie Rooney’s birthday party Thursday night at the Georgetown Club: Michael Kelly, Greta Van Susteren and John Coale, Andrea Saul, John McCarthy, Ryan Williams, David Ginsberg, Erin McPike, Niamh King, Felix Browne, Andy Stone, Kevin McAllister, Liz Johnson, Liz Bourgeois, Brian Roehrkasse, Tara Palmeri, Matt Gorman, Tracey Lintott, Tammy Haddad, Meridith McGraw, Helen and Joe Milby, Jamie Rhoades and T.W. Arrighi.

NEW NOMINEE — The W