Speaker Mike Johnson is expressing confidence that Republicans have enough momentum to win the White House in November – no matter who the Democratic presidential candidate is.

‘As President Trump has said, he was, they had sort of prepared in the mindset that they would run against Biden, but it doesn’t matter. I mean, if they put Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, she’s the co-owner of all the policies, it’s not any better,’ the Louisiana Republican told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview.

‘It doesn’t matter who they run. Anybody that they would put in that place – this election is not about personalities, it’s about policies and what it means to people.’

It comes as Democratic pressure continues to build on President Biden to drop his re-election bid.

The 81-year-old president is facing calls to duck out of the race after his disastrous debate performance last month. It’s brought out concerns that Biden may not have the physical or mental stamina to run for office nor hold it for another four-year term.

Johnson, who has long accused Biden of not having the mental acuity to hold office, would not say whether the president should leave office right now. But he pointed out that even senior Democrats are apparently moving behind the scenes to push Biden off the 2024 ticket.

‘Look, it’s for him to determine. They’re in real turmoil. On the other side, you hear in the last 24 hours, I’m told that [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries] have all pretty well indicated that he – told him, I guess, or at least implied publicly that he should… not run for re-election,’ Johnson said. 

The trio of top Democrats has made no public indication that they’re pushing Biden to get out of the race, and a White House spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday after conversations with Schumer and Jeffries, ‘The president told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.’

Meanwhile, there are 20 congressional Democrats publicly calling on Biden to step aside, including Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a top Pelosi ally.

Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly being viewed as a likely successor to the president, despite similarly struggling with her approval numbers. However, some Republicans have privately expressed concerns that a younger candidate could fare better against Trump.

Johnson said he believes that Trump, on the other hand, is seeing a fresh sense of unity and support ever since the attempt on his life last weekend at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where one rally attendee was killed and two others critically injured.

‘I have done events in 144 cities, in 31 states, they told me, in the last seven months, and there is something happening out there in the country right now. And I think post the failed assassination attempt, there’s even a greater energy out there,’ Johnson said.

‘People feel it personally, and they know what President Trump has had to go through. He has a sympathy factor on top of all the energy that was already there. I think we’re headed for a really strong November for the party.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden campaign for comment but did not hear back by press time.

Florida Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told Fox News Digital that if President Biden bows out of the presidential race and is replaced ahead of the Democratic National Convention, the new candidate would likely have little impact on former President Donald Trump’s shot at winning back the White House this November.

‘I definitely think we’re going to see [Democrats] try to push him out, and we’ll see who they replace them with. I think that’s important for Republicans to understand the moment that this is happening. We have the momentum right now this week at our convention, but this race isn’t over [until] November,’ Greene said from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 

‘There could be a total change if they replace Joe Biden with a new candidate. But we have the right policies. We have the right plans in place for Republicans [to] win,’ she added. 

During the RNC this week, Democrats have increasingly called on Biden to drop out of the race, with California Rep. Adam Schiff joining the chorus of traditional allies calling on the president to pass the mantle ahead of the race against former President Trump. 

‘While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,’ said Schiff. 

Greene continued in her comment to Fox Digital that if Biden bows out and is replaced with another Democrat, it would likely not affect Trump’s run, arguing the Biden administration’s record puts a stain on whoever would join the race. 

‘No matter who they put at the top of the ticket, that candidate has to run with the job record that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have brought the several past years because Democrats are fully aligned behind those policies,’ Greene said.

‘I think America really came to one mindset and got resolved behind President Trump and behind the Republican Party after seeing him almost assassinated on Saturday. It’s a moment that everyone will always remember where they were when that happened, similar to 9/11. Everyone remembers where they were when that happened. I also think people are just really fed up with the border invasion that’s happening every day. The fact that people can’t afford food, can’t afford rent and inflation is really crippling a lot of people,’ she said. 

Biden has so far brushed off the calls for him to bow out, but reports are circulating that he’s increasingly considering calling it quits with the 2024 campaign. 

‘Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,’ Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning near the site of the Republican National Convention.

The president said in a recent interview with BET that he would drop out if a doctor told him he had a medical condition. 

‘If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,’ Biden said in an excerpt of the interview that was released Wednesday. 

Biden is currently quarantined in his home in Delaware after being diagnosed with COVID-19 on Wednesday afternoon.

Delegates and guests attending the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Wisconsin are making predictions about President Biden’s political future amid reports he is closer to exiting the 2024 presidential race.

Fox News Digital spoke with multiple RNC attendees outside Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, the site of the convention, and most felt Biden would ultimately drop his re-election bid but that it would matter little when the votes are finally counted.

‘I think [former President] Trump’s going to mop the floor with anybody they put up,’ one attendee said, adding that it seemed Biden was ‘on the way out the door.’

‘I don’t think it really matters. I think whoever they have, their bench is kind of shallow and weak right now.’

Another attendee told Fox he felt vindicated after predicting months earlier Biden wasn’t going to end up being the Democrat presidential nominee.

‘I think Saturday may have changed things slightly, but I doubt it,’ he said, referencing the failed assassination attempt against Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. ‘The globalists have a mission. They don’t care anymore about Joe Biden. … I don’t think it matters who they run. I don’t think they have a shot to win a legitimate election at this point.’ 

Others also predicted Biden would drop out, but some expressed hope he would stay in the race or thought that Democrats couldn’t afford to dump him from the ticket so close to the election.

‘They bet with him, and they keep telling us how far ahead in the polls he is, so they need to keep backing him all the way. I think it’d be disastrous if they change right now,’ she said.

‘I think he understands, and his compatriots understand, he needs to drop out. So, I think he will. I have no idea who they’re going to put up, you know, to replace him. I would hope it wouldn’t be Kamala, but I have no idea,’ another said.

One attendee said it would be ‘totally fine’ if Vice President Harris became the nominee or even California Gov. Gavin Newsom or former first lady Michelle Obama. ‘The people, I think, are waking up to know that that’s just not the party of the people anymore. So, it doesn’t matter.’

The attendees also unanimously praised Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, after his Wednesday convention speech, calling him ’empathetic,’ ‘high energy’ and ‘relatable.’

Reuters reported Thursday that Biden is now ‘soul-searching’ about the future of his candidacy, citing sources familiar with the matter, while NBC News reported a source close to the president as saying, ‘We’re close to the end.’

The reports come after previous reporting from the Washington Post that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Biden he would lose and push the House of Representatives further under Republican control. The Post also reported that former President Obama told his allies that Biden needed to reconsider his candidacy.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is urging former President Trump to emphasize unity in his speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Thursday night.

Mace, a Trump ally and unofficial surrogate for his campaign, suggested she wanted to see a plan from Trump to not only appeal to all factions of the GOP but voters outside of it as well – especially groups that traditionally do not vote Republican.

‘I want to hear him unifying the party, unifying the nation, especially in the wake of the attempted assassination on Saturday,’ Mace told Fox News Digital in an interview after her own RNC speech.

Trump is taking the RNC stage on Thursday to formally accept the GOP nomination for president for 2024. 

He’s expected to have modified his speech after the failed attempt on his life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend. A 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a rooftop outside the rally perimeter, killing one attendee and injuring two others.

The primetime address will be his first speech since the assassination attempt.

Mace suggested the address should not focus on partisan divides but rather on appealing to a broader group of voters.

‘It’s important that we all come together. But this isn’t a fight for the left or the right. Each side has their own,’ she said. ‘This is, how do we attract independent voters? How do we attract women? How do we attract [people] to the left of center, centrists and moderates, and know that they have a home within our party?’

‘And that can unify a party, that can unify the country. And when he gets elected, it’ll be a landslide.’

Mace herself has been known to buck the traditional party line on occasion, forcefully calling on Republicans to take a clearer stance on women’s issues like abortion exceptions and sexual assault accountability.

During her Wednesday night RNC speech, Mace pointed out that she was both a single mom and a rape survivor.

‘To women tonight who can relate, please know – you have a friend and a sister in me,’ Mace said. ‘And I will fight like hell for you.’

MILWAUKEE — The Rev. Lorenzo Sewell, who will deliver a speech to Republicans at the RNC on Thursday night, spoke to Fox News Digital about why Black voters are gravitating toward former President Trump despite some denials from Democrats.

‘The increase is happening,’ Sewell said about the shift in Black voters toward Trump despite some Democrats, including Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson this week, downplaying the shift.

‘When President Donald Trump came to our church last month, you could see Black people there. We know the increase is happening beyond a shadow of a doubt, because in my church, I saw with my own eyes rappers, preachers, teachers, those who aren’t necessarily affiliated with the church, come and listen to President Donald Trump. So, we know it’s happening.’

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll released last month found that support for Biden among Black voters has dropped roughly 20 percentage points in the swing states of Michigan and Pennsylvania since the last election. 

Fox News polling showed that Biden led Trump by 64 points with Black voters in July 2020. Today, Biden’s lead has shrunk to 42.

When asked by Fox News Digital what makes Trump different from previous GOP presidential candidates who couldn’t resonate with Black voters, Sewell said, ‘He’s not a typical politician.’

He was willing to come to a community that most Republicans would not come to. President Donald Trump, I think him being a New Yorker, I think it serves him well, right? Him having that cultural awareness and cultural intelligence, where in cities like mine, Detroit, where it’s so polarizing in terms of the Black and white vote.’

‘He’s willing to jump in and willing to get his hands dirty, and he’s willing to have a plan, right? When you look at the Platinum Plan and you look at [what] President Donald J. Trump did regarding that plan in terms of making sure that Black entrepreneurs had resources, Black churches got resources,’ Sewell continued. ‘That’s why I believe he resonates, and if we were to be honest, back in the day, everyone wanted to be Donald Trump, right? Let’s keep it real, right? So, I believe that’s some of the reasons why he resonates.’

Sewell, who grew up amid drugs and gang violence in a home where his father went to prison and brother was murdered, told Fox News Digital that he attended the RNC to speak up for ‘forgotten’ people in Michigan that are ‘disenfranchised’ and ‘marginalized’ and explained that he hopes Black voters watch the RNC and look up information about the Republican Party.

I would just Google the Republican Party. Look at 170 years ago how patriots stood up to stop slavery,’ Sewell said. ‘I would just Google Black Republicans, and I would look at some of the greatest leaders in our culture, in our context, people like Thomas Sowell and others that were willing to stand up, even patriots during post-Reconstruction where Black Americans were Republican.

‘When you think about Frederick Douglass and how he advised Abraham Lincoln, that’s what I would do. I would take the time to do a quick five-minute Google search about Black Republicans and see that Black people have always been Republicans. It’s the Democrats that have these identity politics and try to confuse Black America into thinking that Black people don’t vote Republican. We always have, and Donald Trump, he’s bringing the Black vote back again.’

The walls appear to be closing in on President Biden’s re-election campaign.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reportedly told President Biden in a phone call that polls are showing he cannot defeat former President Trump in November and that him staying in the race could destroy Democrats’ chances of taking the House in November.

The phone call marked the second time Pelosi and Biden spoke since the president’s disastrous debate performance against Trump on June 27, according to a CNN report Thursday citing four sources briefed on the call. The sources also told CNN that the former speaker did not tell Biden to drop out of the race. 

The report came just hours before the Washington Post reported that former President Barack Obama told his allies in recent days that he believes Biden needs to reconsider his candidacy. 

In terms of the Pelosi call, Biden responded by pushing back, telling her he has seen polls that indicate he can win, one source told the outlet. 

Another one of the sources described Biden as getting defensive about the polls and that at one point, Pelosi asked Mike Donilon, Biden’s longtime adviser, to get on the line to talk over the data.

It is unclear when exactly the call took place, but one CNN source says it was held within the last week. Pelosi and Biden also spoke in early July.

A spokesperson for Pelosi tells Fox News Digital that the congresswoman would not comment on private conversations with the president. 

‘Speaker Pelosi respects the confidentiality of her meetings and conversations with the President of the United States. Sadly, the feeding frenzy from the press based on anonymous sources misrepresents any conversations the Speaker may have had with the President,’ the spokesperson said in a statement. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Pelosi is a longtime Biden ally. She led House Democrats for the entirety of Biden’s two terms as vice president and served as House speaker for the first two years of his presidency, ushering major pieces of Biden’s agenda through Congress, including the American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure law.

In the wake of the debate, Pelosi said she would support whatever the president decided to do, although several reports indicate that she was encouraging lawmakers to continue to put pressure on Biden to reconsider his decision to run for re-election.

Biden has faced mounting calls to step aside since his disastrous debate performance and his campaign has been in disarray ever since. The campaign had believed that the attempted assassination of Trump, in which he sustained a wound to the right ear, had tamped down calls for Biden to step aside.

But on Wednesday, influential Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff called on Biden to drop out, telling Fox News Digital in a statement that he has ‘serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.’

Reuters, citing a top White House source with direct knowledge of the matter, reported earlier Thursday that Pelosi backed Schiff’s call for Biden to drop out of the race, although her office did not address the report when asked by Fox News Digital. Schiff and Pelosi both represent California districts in the House.

‘Nancy is all over this. She doesn’t miss. Schiff wouldn’t move without her approval,’ the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

Last week, a number of House Democrats told The Hill that Pelosi was advising members in their conference against rallying to Biden before there is a broader discussion over whether he is the best candidate to defeat Trump. 

‘I did have a conversation with her, she is very concerned,’ one House Democratic lawmaker told The Hill. ‘It’s not like she’s like, ‘We’re sticking with this guy.”

Fox News’ Brian Flood and Chris Pandolfo, as well as Reuters contributed to this report. 

Alina Habba, an attorney and legal spokesperson for former President Donald Trump, is taking on a major new role that she hopes will help accomplish the ‘critical’ task of sending him back to the White House this November.

Habba is now serving as a senior adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign, a promotion that comes after she gained national recognition in her legal role, which saw her win in court for the former president more than any of his other attorneys despite having only been on his team since 2021.

Fox News Digital sat down with Habba ahead of Trump’s highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where she discussed her new role and gave a preview of what the former president will say to the audience of delegates and supporters who, earlier this week, cheered his triumphant return following a failed assassination attempt.

‘Moved, I think, is the best word for it. I was moved,’ Habba said when asked how she felt seeing Trump, sporting a bandage on his wounded ear, enter the convention hall on Monday night to massive cheers and applause. ‘I think America could see it’s a different President Trump today.’ 

‘I never in my life thought I would live through that, let alone live through it and say, ‘That’s also my friend.’ And that’s been very difficult for me,’ she said. ‘It’s traumatic, but I’m proud of him.’

Habba described her promotion as a ‘great honor’ and said it would provide her, as a mom, with the opportunity to discuss issues important to women across the country.

She still plans to fulfill her duties as an attorney for Trump, citing ongoing cases in which she’s involved, but also plans to now be a ‘voice for President Trump’ in order to speak on a wider range of issues.

Trump’s campaign said earlier this week that the former president — following his brush with death — will use his speech to call for unity in the face of tragedy instead of criticizing his political adversaries.

Habba expanded on that, telling Fox that Trump’s speech changed ‘dramatically’ following Saturday’s events.

‘Without getting into details, I will say that I think it’s authentic. Everything he does is authentic, and I think that his perspective on life … has changed,’ she said. ‘Not that he wasn’t already a great fighter, but I think that the country needs to hear from him in a different light.’ 

‘I just don’t see how he couldn’t, because of what he actually went through. So it’s going to be authentic. It’s going to be genuine. And I think it’s going to be what the American people need to hear.’

Habba will give her own speech to the RNC ahead of Trump on Thursday, something she says is emotional for her.

‘It takes a lot to rattle me these days. I’ve been through a tremendous amount with him. But this one means a lot to me. So I will not be speaking about legal issues. I will be speaking about him, and I’m excited to do so, and let the American people know the President Trump that I know,’ she said.

Habba’s promotion has been received well and, according to multiple people who are familiar, has already led to a boost in fundraising for the Trump campaign.

‘The greatest part about what she does is she doesn’t speak from opinion. It’s based on legal facts and procedures, and she does it in a way that’s articulate, powerful and gorgeous to boot,’ Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., said of Habba as he stopped by to talk amid the interview with Fox.

‘Brains and beauty is a dangerous combination in this game,’ he said.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

MILWAUKEE – Former President Trump’s campaign is contrasting what they call a ‘unified’ GOP at the Republican National Convention with the latest turmoil surrounding President Biden’s re-election bid.

On Thursday, a Trump campaign official told Fox News ‘when you look at what we’ve done with this convention, we’ve demonstrated to the American people that not only is the Republican Party unified, but we have a unifying vision for the entire country with President Trump’s agenda and plan for America well established.’

‘At the same time, the Democrats can’t even figure out who their nominee should be,’ the official argued.

The comments come as President Biden’s re-election campaign is pushing back against a slew of reports in the past 24 hours that the president has become more receptive in the last couple of days to hearing arguments about why he should drop his 2024 re-election run.

‘Our campaign is not working through any scenarios where President Biden is not at the top of the ticket. He is and will be the Democratic nominee,’ Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told reporters at a news conference Thursday morning near the site of the Republican National Convention.

Fulks emphasized that ‘the president has said it several times. He’s staying in this race’ and ‘we look forward to him accepting the [nomination of the] delegates in Chicago and continuing with this race to talk about what’s at stake.’

Following his disastrous debate performance last month in his face-to-face showdown with former President Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, the 81-year-old Biden has been facing questions about whether he has the physical and mental capabilities to serve another four years in the most demanding job in the world.

And politically, Biden’s been pushing back against a rising chorus of calls to end his campaign from elected Democrats, who are deeply concerned about the possibility of the party not only losing the White House but both houses of Congress in the fall election.

Reports over the past 24 hours indicated that top Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – have had frank conversations with Biden about the president ending his campaign.

And a Washington Post report on Thursday suggested that Former President Obama has told allies in recent days that Biden’s path to victory has been vastly reduced, and he thinks the president needs to seriously reconsider his decision to keep running.

A source familiar with former President Obama’s thinking, asked about the new Washington Post report, told Fox News that the former president ‘continues to see his primary role as a sounding board and counselor for President Biden, as they have long done for each other for many years now. He believes Joe Biden has been an outstanding President and is protective of him both personally and of the Biden administration’s strong and historic accomplishments.’