House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is traveling the country and feeling "bullish" on the November elections, but warned on Newsmax it will ultimately come down to making a sizable margin of the majority in Congress move America forward in a conservative way.
"We've been in 136 cities now and over 30 states doing political events, campaigning with our incumbents and challengers, it's going very, very well," Johnson told Newsmax's "America Right Now" host Tom Basile in an exclusive in-studio interview in New York City on Saturday morning.
"We are very bullish about November. We don't take anything for granted, and we have to run right through the tape. And it takes a lot of effort to get it done."
Johnson said he never envisioned becoming the House speaker even a year ago, but now that the speaker's gavel "fell" to him, he is taking hold and pounded it with his "clear vision."
"The Congress can't operate without a speaker of the House," Johnson told Basile. "It's a constitutional position, of course, and it fell to me ultimately to take the gavel.
"So I'm very sober-minded about it. We're in very serious times as a nation. We have great challenges ahead of us. But the reason I'm such a happy warrior is I know we have the answers to all these great challenges, and I'm excited.
"I'm increasingly confident the American people are going to give us control of both chambers of Congress and the White House again, and we'll be able to fix everything."
To set the table for the next Congress, Republicans need a convincing sweep of the House and Senate and expanded margins to push through Johnson's vision, he continued.
"The question will be in the outcome of this election in November," he said. "I believe Republicans will be in charge of the Senate and the House. The question is, will our margins be large enough to do one big comprehensive immigration reform package, or do we need to do it piecemeal like that?
"We must have change and we must have it quickly and aggressively. We're going to push that, in terms of what the final playbook looks like.
"It has a lot to do with the size of our margins, to be honest."
Johnson said he has settled into his role as the head of the House and is ready to put forth the Republican election platform he has been pitching around the country while the House is not in session.
"I have a very clear vision about where we need to go and who we are as a nation," Johnson said. "We're in a battle right now between two completely different worldviews. You know: What is America? Who are we? How do we maintain our status as the last great superpower?"
Johnson hearkened back to late President Ronald Reagan, saying today's Republicans are the "stewards" of modern conservatism.
"I know the path to do that, and it's what Reagan said in his farewell address: He said, 'they call me the Great Communicator.' He said, 'I really wasn't' — I'm paraphrasing him — 'I was just communicating great things, the same great things that have guided our nation since its founding.'
"I believe in those great things. I believe we're stewards of them, and I have a vision on how to get us through. I think my colleagues appreciate that, and if it's God's will, I'll still be the speaker. And I think Donald Trump's going to be the president.
"I think we're going to have the majority in the Senate. We have a lot of really hard work, very important work to do, and we have to do it quickly. And so we've got to have a plan, a playbook ready to implement.
"That's what we're working on right now. I'm really excited about the prospect of that, and I'm very bullish on the future of America."
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