Speaker Johnson, as he seeks to secure another term for President Trump and a larger majority for his party in the House, tells the Sun that Vice President Harris “has the most liberal record of anyone who has ever run for president.”

The lawmaker from Louisiana, who sat down with the Sun during a visit to Manhattan, calls Ms. Harris’s choice for vice president, Governor Walz, “an equally radical liberal.” He insisted that “this is not a contest between personalities — it’s about policies.” The polls show a tight race nationally and in battleground states.

The speaker reckons that the reason why Governor Shapiro was passed over by Ms. Harris despite his strength in the all-important state of Pennsylvania is “because he is Jewish. It seems apparent.” He sees in the passing over of Mr. Shapiro the influence of the “pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party.” Senator Sanders and Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have all expressed delight in the choice of Mr. Walz.  

Mr. Johnson, who is a close ally of Trump and has paid visits to Mar-a-Lago, predicted that the 45th president would return to the White House as the 47th one. He asserts that President Biden has undergone a “precipitous decline in his health and mental acuity” and notes that he “is not aging well.”

The speaker reckons that Ms. Harris’s acceding to the top of the ticket, however, pops the pretension of Democrats to be the champions of “small d democracy.”

The Speaker ventures that Mr. Shapiro would have been a “much more intelligent pick” for Ms. Harris than was Mr. Walz. Mr. Johnson criticizes Ms. Harris’s absence from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress “unconscionable” and declares that “America should stand arm in arm with Israel.” He calls the Jewish state one of America’s best allies “on the planet.”

Mr. Johnson argues that Ms. Harris “has been timid on Israel and it has real world effects. It is unforgivable.” The speaker calls peace with Hamas “not a possibility at this point” and called for Israel to “vanquish” its enemies, among them Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran’s other proxies.

The Speaker invokes President Reagan and says he supports a foreign policy characterized by “peace through strength.” 

The Sun asked the speaker about accusations that the Republican Party’s foreign policy has become marbled with isolationism, especially in respect of the war in Ukraine. Senator Vance, among other prominent voices in the party, has expressed skepticism about the war in Ukraine. Mr. Johnson acknowledged “talk of an isolationist bent” and asserted that “we cannot be interventionists and we can’t be nation builders.”      

Mr. Johnson calls the border “wide open,” a claim that Democrats contest, and references inflation. He cites the “first few years” of the Trump administration as a time to which many Americans want to return. He advises the ticket of Trump and Mr. Vance to “focus on policy.” He sees a Harris-Walz ticket as an invitation to “chaos.” The speaker cites Mr. Vance’s “humble beginnings” as a story that can win voters to the Republican ticket.   

The solon calls himself a “war time speaker” and expresses his desire to “keep the ship of state headed in the right direction.” He acknowledges the power of the office he holds and but shares that he “hasn’t had an hour off since he got the gavel.” He calls his party the “stewards of the great things” that have made America extraordinary.  

This article has been updated from the bulldog.