House Speaker says Harris selection of Walz predictable but good for GOP

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to choose Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) will make it “easier” for former President Donald Trump to win the presidency in November. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had been believed to be a frontrunner until the campaign selected Walz. The announcement came Tuesday morning.

“I didn’t expect that she would do it,” Johnson told The Hill of Harris not choosing a more conservative VP candidate to balance the ticket “because she has proven, once again, to be true to her principles and her priorities, and they’re not aligned with the American people.”

Johnson called Walz a “far-left candidate and choice,” in his interview with The Hill and said it confirms the left-leaning course of the Democratic Party.

“It makes it easier for us,” Johnson said. “He is a far-left candidate and choice. I frankly thought that she might try to choose a moderate, but obviously she has proven once again who she is. We refer to Kamala Harris as a San Francisco radical because she is.”

Johnson noted that Harris has always had a reputation as a far-left Democrat. “I think the choice of Walz, I think just further verifies that,” he told The Hill. .

“Our challenges in the election cycle is to make those positions known and not let them obscure, try to obscure their record, which they’re already attempting to do,” he continued. Harris was down to a choice of three candidates: Walz, Gov. Josh Shaprio (D-PA) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

Johnson told The Hill that Shapiro “would have been a smarter choice” for Harris even if his Jewish ethnicity might have polarized Democratic voters who are divided over Israel’s war in Gaza. The far-left of the progressive base has opposed sympathy to Israel after the nation was attacked on October 7, 2023, by Hamas terrorists who massacred 1,200 and kidnapped over 200. Most of those are still in Hamas' custody.