In the wake of Thursday night’s presidential debate, a top Republican is warning of the threat to America posed by President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which he described as “a five-alarm fire.”

On Saturday morning’s episode of “This Week on the Hill,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) talked with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins about Biden’s debate performance and what it portends for the Democratic Party heading into November. “That was the biggest mismatch in the history of presidential debates, and it was watched in huge numbers by the American people,” Johnson said, adding that Democrats are now “in panic mode” because “everyone has seen what we have long known and what, frankly, my Democrat colleagues on Capitol Hill have long known” about Biden’s cognitive state.

“And now they’re having to acknowledge the objective truth: there was only one man on that stage who was capable and qualified of serving as our next president, and that’s Donald Trump,” Johnson continued. “Joe Biden is not up to the job. He looked weak, he looked frail, he was clearly dishonest. … I think they recognize they’ve got a serious problem, not just with his reelection for the White House, but now with the down-ballot effect … in this election in November.”

That “down-ballot effect,” Johnson explained, is why his “colleagues on the Democrat[ic] side of the aisle here are in full-fledged panic mode.” He continued, “This now relates to their own careers and their own re-election prospects. … I think it obviously has an effect on the enthusiasm gap between the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign. I think they’re very deeply concerned about voter turnout for their side.” The speaker asked, “Who’s going to be motivated to go support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? And then, what does that mean for their races for the Senate and the House?”

“Remember, too, that Joe Biden had more than a week to prepare for this. He was rested and prepared. I mean, who knows how many rounds they did in mock debates behind closed doors?” Johnson continued. “If there were ever an ‘A game’ that he was capable of, it should have been on that stage. But he didn’t do that. And so everybody saw what we have all seen here.” He added, “And all I do is tell the truth. I mean, I’m not doing that for political purposes, and I take no pleasure in saying that the current occupant of the White House is not fit to be president — because our adversaries see this as well.”

“China and Russia and Iran and North Korea are working in a new axis of evil, we ourselves are being threatened by terrorists on our own shore, and all these other nations and our allies are in open conflict and war because of this situation,” the speaker observed. “So it’s very serious. It’s not something we should laugh at, but it is something we have to correct as quickly as possible, and November cannot get here soon enough.”

Johnson also noted that, in the wake of Thursday night’s debate, Democrats are “saying the quiet parts out loud now, because people want to distance themselves from this performance and this president — they should have been for many months now trying to distance themselves from his record.” Responding to claims that the Democratic Party may try to swap Biden for another potential candidate at the party’s August convention, Johnson clarified:

“Remember, the way this works and the system works is that the delegates are pledged and effectively owned, so to speak, by Joe Biden himself. So he is the only person on the planet who can decide to turn them over to someone else. And let’s say that Joe Biden would agree that they should do that. Well, who would they give them to? They don’t have a candidate. They don’t have a deep bench. They don’t have anybody who can leapfrog Kamala Harris without creating another big problem in their party. And obviously she can’t run for president. Her public approval rating is one of the lowest in the history of polling. So they have a serious problem. And that’s why you’re hearing the panic — and I think that that will continue in the days and weeks ahead.”

Observing that inflation and crime are on the rise and Biden’s open border is ushering millions of unvetted illegal immigrants into the country, Johnson posited that former President Donald Trump served as a welcome foil against Biden, not just cognitively but in policy matters. “I think President Trump did a good job … showing that he is ready to lead, and he wants to be aggressive about it,” the speaker stated. “Obviously, President Trump won on every metric of performance. He won on the issues, he won on his temperament during that debate, his stamina, his mental acuity. And he kept going to the substance of the issues on the economy.”

“Trump talked about how he cut taxes and cut regulations and how that spurred on the greatest economy in the history of the world. It’s certainly true, objectively true,” Johnson noted. “Look at the data from after the first couple of years of the Trump administration, before the COVID disruption, we literally had the greatest economy in the history of the world. All demographics were doing better. Everybody had a better standard of life and an opportunity for a better standard of life.”

“And we have the opposite of that right now, because Joe Biden has done the opposite in terms of policy. He can’t talk about that, of course. And so he uses these silly talking points,” the speaker continued. “He tried to provoke Donald Trump a number of times on personal matters. Joe Biden cannot talk about his record because it is atrocious and everybody knows it, and so he’s trying to distract people with these other things.”

Johnson further anticipated that November’s election will be “unique.” He stated, “I believe those kitchen table issues that affect every hardworking family in America transcend political party, I really do. I mean, I think people are going to look past their party registration. They’re looking to the survival and the best interests of their own families. It’s very personal to people.” Johnson continued:

“And that’s what we hear around the country. When moms and dads are working two jobs and they cannot stay afloat, they cannot keep groceries on the table, they can’t buy the basic things that they need for their family and meet their children’s basic needs without extreme financial stress and putting things on a credit card every month, that’s very real to them. You can talk about ethereal issues and things that are happening around the globe — they’re concerned about that — but their first concern is their own family, their own livelihoods. And that’s what’s on the line.”

The speaker also pointed out the importance of having a strong commander-in-chief for the U.S. military, recounting his own son’s recent induction into the Naval Academy. “Your heart would burst with pride if you were on that Navy Yard at the academy yesterday and watched all these bright young men and women and their families,” Johnson said. “They believe in America. They believe in that promise, our shining city on the hill, and they’re willing to stake their own lives for it and put their own lives in jeopardy to make the sacrifice to serve their country. That’s what’s great about our nation.”

“We’re still an experiment on the world stage, a grand experiment in self-governance. [There’s] never been a country like ours before. Now we’re the model for the rest of the world. We’ve got to preserve this,” Johnson insisted. “Freedom’s not passed along in the bloodstream, as Reagan reminded us. It’s got to be taught and fought for and cherished by the next generation. Those are the things that are at stake.”

“We desperately need a new commander-in-chief. We maintain peace through strength. That is the Reagan principle that he articulated so well,” the speaker intoned. “That’s been our policy and our responsibility. And we’re not doing that right now. And I’m counting on a new commander-in-chief coming in so that we can get this done — and my son can serve under such a commander.”

Finally, Johnson addressed voters directly with advice for the upcoming election. “Vote with your heart and your mind, your conscience. Everybody can see what’s on display here. There are two choices, two starkly different individuals. Don’t think about personality. Think about policy,” he said. “What are the policies that are best for you and your family? You make that choice. You determine who’s the fit [and] strong person to lead us into the next four years. I think the choice is very easy.”