House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., predicted to Newsmax that President Donald Trump will return to the White House and become "the most consequential president of the modern era."
During an exclusive interview with Newsmax's Tom Basile, Johnson said he's eager to work with Trump and "turn this country around."
"I think President Trump's head and his heart are in exactly the right place where you would want the next commander in chief to be," Johnson told Basile during the final week before Trump opposes Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday's presidential election. "We're facing the greatest, I guess, collection of challenges probably that we've faced since World War II as a nation, maybe since the Civil War.
"I tell him all the time, 'Mr. President I believe you're going to be the most consequential president of the modern era in your next term because, sir, we have to fix everything now.' And he knows that. It's going to be policy and agenda driven. We're looking forward to not wasting one moment. As soon as the proverbial ball is handed to us, we're going to run the plays, and we're going to turn this country around."
Johnson said the U.S. needs a strong commander in chief because, under 81-year-old President Joe Biden, it does not currently have one.
"It's an alarming thing to know that the commander in chief is not actually commanding, and I think that's been the case for some time. And I'll say here at the close that Kamala Harris is to blame for this," Johnson told Basile.
"She bragged about how she was the last person in the room, and she engaged in what's probably one of the biggest political cover-ups in the history of the country. She knew about his diminishing abilities to do the job and she hid it from the American people. That's something that should give us great concern about her character and her judgment."
Johnson also told Basile that he felt "really good" about the GOP's chances of retaining control of the House. He said that of the chamber's 435 seats, determining which party wins majority "probably comes down to 20 or less."
"You're seeing an enormous amount of energy, time and money expended to win these seats," the speaker said. "I'm very confident because, again, it's about the quality of the candidates at the end of the day and we have an extraordinary stable of persons who've been recruited to flip blue seats to red, and then our incumbents are running really great races, California and New York being some of the swing seats that will decide the majority.
"I feel really good about every one we have in the field."
Despite saying "we know that there'll be some noncitizens voting in certain places around the country," Johnson expressed a belief that Republicans are better prepared to ensure voter fraud does not affect the general election.
"The Republican Party's done a very good job, from the RNC level all the way down to federal, state, local level to have more eyes on the process, to have precinct captains and poll watchers and volunteers to help with all this," Johnson said.
"And then we've also really pressed early voting and you've seen the results of that. So, there's a lot of good things being done. A lot of integrity measure that have been enacted."
Johnson encouraged GOP voters to make sure they head to the polls.
"We tried to pass the SAVE Act to prevent that [voter fraud], but [Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer stopped it in the Senate," Johnson said. "All the House Democrats, almost every single one of them voted against that by the way — shows you where their mind is on the issue.
"But, we've got to compensate for that with our turnout. And so, that's why when President Trump says 'make it too big to rig,' that's what he's talking about, and I have some confidence that that is exactly what's going to happen."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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