Scott thank you for being here. Republicans have up until now been complaining about the impeachment process. As these hearings and depositions have been a hind closed doors. But now with the Impeachment Vote and looking ahead for the process as it moves into the public sphere, can you talk a little bit about what the merits of your arguments look like . President trump has urged republicans to fight impeachment on the merits, not process. Can you talk about the arguments on the merits Going Forward . Rep. Johnson thats a good question. We just had a lengthy press conference after the vote on the house floor, which was bipartisan, you saw two democrats vote with the republicans not to proceed with the resolution. But we had problems with both process and the substance and we are anxious to debate both of those things and do it in the open, and that is the main thing. We want the American People to see the evidence that chairman schiff has decided to keep secret with these depositions and transcript that even i as a member of the house Judiciary Committee, with appropriate jurisdiction over impeachment, am not allowed to see. We issued a challenge today in the press conference and i think every republican member was standing together, i think congressman selden set it well, he has been hearing all of this and he challenged chairman schiff to release the transcripts. Lets put the facts out there, we want the American People to judge for themselves the merits of these claims and allegations, and we as duly elected representatives should have a right to review that as well. Thats our charge Going Forward. I think thats a good question and has yet to be answered. Scott you have any concerns about what you have seen come out of the closeddoor hearings . We have some of the facts, we know what was in we have the transcript of the july 25 call between the president and the ukrainian president. We have some of the Opening Statements from some of the people who have testified, including bill taylor and Lieutenant Colonel vindman, who raised concerns of the chain of command. Is there anything you have seen that you have concerns with . Rep. Johnson what we know is that the transcript, that the president himself made an unprecedented decision to release it almost immediately when the charges were first made. Every american citizen has the opportunity to review the transcript for themselves. We have witnesses coming forward, many of them could be challenged on credibility, could be effectively crossexamined, but in that scif, i am told by my colleagues they are not even at liberty to talk to us about the substance, but we are told they complained loudly about the process. They are not allowed to ask certain questions. Chairman schiff is not allowing the witnesses to answer. In the past when there has been in the impeachment process, it has been in the open. The previous congresses have been deliberate about that. Much has been said about the federalist papers, Alexander Hamilton was cited more times this week on the hill than in a number of years because he wrote specifically about this day, this was a fear of the founders, that partisan politics would be driving an impeachment quest. The democrats determine a long time ago what the outcome of this would be. It is predetermined and they are using the impeachment process to obtain that and that is not fair. It is an abuse of the system of justice and assault our sense of fairness. Katherine congressman, as these hearings move into the public sphere and lawmakers and the public are able to see what some of these witnesses, who i know democrats are planning to bring back for public hearings, do you have any concern with the attacks this week from the president and former members of congress against the Lieutenant Colonel against the erosion of trust in the Intelligence Community or military community or diplomatic corps if there are attacks against the witnesses in these public settings . Rep. Johnson no, look, i spent over an hour with the president , we had about a dozen members of the Republican Study Committee at the white house on tuesday and the president vented some frustration to us. I think he is rightfully frustrated by this, he has been denied the basic rights of due process in this charade that adam schiff and his colleagues have engaged upon. There is a certain element of frustration that is fair. Are we concerned about institutions of our intelligence apparatus . No, i am concerned about the congress itself. At the end of the day, one of the greatest concerns, deepest concerns we have about this whole sham, we keep using that word, is not an epitet, it is what is actually happening. If the American People dont have faith in the impeachment inquiry in a fair way, they give up on congress itself and ultimately the republic. We are still an experiment on the world stage. A constitutional republic. We dont know how long it can last. One thing is presupposed is that you will have fairness in the system and that justice will be blind and you will have the rule of law that applies equally to everyone and we havent had that this week and the last few weeks. Host when the white house put out the readout of the phone call, noted in the notice to the public that it was not a word for word document and it was a memo and not a transcript of the phone call. Colonel vindman has testified there were words not included in the readout or the memo given to the public. Should the president release the entire phone call word for word to resolve this once and for all . Rep. Johnson i dont know and nor do you or anyone else if there is an actual recording of the call. I suppose there may be. What we are told is it is customary for there to be a memo kind of transcript, a summary of the call, that is by the way, we understand, drafted by a number of persons listening in, not just one transcriptionist. A lot of faith has been put into the credibility and accuracy of that transcript. This is part of the factfinding that should be going on in my committee in the house Judiciary Committee. We are supposed to have jurisdiction over this and we can have a fair hearing of facts and if there are things in dispute, we need to listen to that. Thus far, we havent had an opportunity to do that. The resolution passed today doesnt allow for fairness, either, thats what we voted against it. It allows continued unilateral authority for chairman schiff and eventually chairman nadler, they have authority to veto what the other side may do, and quick summary. That is our concern and we dont know if there will ever be fairness in the process so we can flesh out potentially Unanswered Questions. Host should the president of United States ask a foreign power to investigate someone, that in the investigation would benefit him, the president , politically . Is that appropriate . Rep. Johnson what the president was asking was investigation of an event a couple of years earlier. The transcript reflects this, he was not asking for dirt on a future political opponent for something in the future, he was trying to get to the bottom of corruption that many americans, millions of americans have concerns about. These are Unanswered Questions and it is appropriate for leaders and heads of state to have a dialogue about things like that. There was some deep corruption involved, the president was i think justified in his zeal to get answers on that. On its face, thats what it comes down to, arguing the substance. Some people might quibble about whether it was appropriate for him to say it the way he did but this is not impeachable conduct or high crimes and misdemeanors and i think that will be the inevitable conclusion that most americans will see. Host you dont think an investigation of joe biden and his son would hurt the former Vice President politically in the 2020 election cycle . Rep. Johnson maybe it would come but that is not what the president asked and arguably is not what he intended, and he was going after the corruption with a corrupt oligarch, a corrupt corporation, the idea that a Vice President son has been hired at 50,000 a month to serve on a board for which he had no experience or insight, it done anything in the oil and gas industry or had expertise in dealing with ukraine. It looks on its face to be absolutely corrupt and thats why a lot of people have serious questions about that. The president not least among them. Thats why people read the transcript and go where is that there . Yesterday, tom brokaw, someone who everyone respects in the media, he said i dont see it and i dont see what democrats are basing this on. He contrasted it with the lenten impeachment process where they were clear facts. They dont have that here and thats why so many of us are frustrated. Scott what do you think the white house should be doing to fight impeachment as it goes forward into these public hearings . Do they need to set up a war room . It seems like mr. Mulvaney has been sidelined on a lot of these issues. Do they need a point person at the white house to be leading the charge against impeachment . What do they need to do better . Rep. Johnson i suppose they could study what previous administrations have done. This is exceedingly rare, this is only the fourth time in u. S. History this has happened, and there is good reason for that. We remember during the clinton impeachment, i think they did have a war room and a point person over the effort to guard the president s interests. This is a very serious matter, it does not get more serious than this, and i think the president will take it seriously. I think mulvaney will give good counsel. What we have to guard so jealously is the process, procedure, and rule of law. That is what will be lasting beyond the Trump Administration and all of this, the Lasting Legacy of this will be how this congress and the legislative branch handled is important affair. I hope they are watching it closely and all of us are on our toes the entire time. We plan to be in the house Judiciary Committee. Katherine on the Judiciary Committee when you have the opportunity to get the information that comes out of oath of these closed depositions and the public hearings in the Intelligence Community, is there anyone that you specifically would like to be able to speak with and ask questions to that has not yet been brought behind closed doors or you heard could be in the open hearings . Rep. Johnson who i would like to ask questions of first and foremost is adam schiff himself. If he wants to pretend he is can start, he needs to submit for a q a himself. I have an important list of questions for adam schiff. I would like to know what relationship he and his staff had with the whistleblower in advance of all of this. And how all of that developed. There are a lot of Unanswered Questions that go to the root of this entire process. He is the best person to answer those questions, so i would like to start with one of my colleagues on that regard, and have the opportunity to ask questions of some of the folks who have already testified in the secret deposition room, but also to present defense witnesses. Theyve not had a great opportunity to do that yet, if any at all. We intend to do that in the house Judiciary Committee. Host what have you been told either from the house lawyers or otherwise about the whistleblowers name and whether you all could publicly say who this person is . Rep. Johnson thats the point, we have no idea. Theres all sorts of rumor and innuendo around the hill but we dont know that specifically. I dont know anything about it and thats part of the concern. Really the only person in the capitol complex who knows who the whistleblower is is adam schiff. Im not sure anyone else knows if youd there are all sorts of allegations and rumors but we dont know anything. Scott why dont we move on to some policy issues . As chairman of the Republican Study Committee, you have rolled out your new Health Care Plan in recent days. Can you talk a little bit about that plan and why specifically now republicans are in the minority in the house, nancy pelosi is not going to move your planta to the house floor anytime soon for a vote, talk a little bit about the main differences between your plan and the 2017 repeal and replace obamacare plan that as we all know failed by one vote in the senate a couple of years ago . What are the big differences . Rep. Johnson great question. We are really excited to roll this out last tuesday. It is the product of almost a year of work in the trenches. Everyone will remember and march, march, President Trump famously said the Republican Party will be the party of health care, you watch. People have been watching. I had the occasion to speak to the president a few days after he made that statement and i said, i think you for saying that. The Republican Study Committee, which is the largest caucus of conservatives in congress, we divide into working groups and task forces and one of our Priority Task forces in this congress has been the issue of health care. The Health Care Task force led by Roger Marshall kansas. We have had a number of republican members in congress and others with positions of expertise in the area working regularly on this since january. All of the effort that has gone into that, consulting with experts in the field, meeting with people across the health care spectrum, we distilled what we thought were the best ideas and published it in a 66 page document that we entitled a framework. A framework for personalized, affordable care. There is a deep and serious, stark contrast between what we are proposing and the democrats are proposing. If you listen to those running for president on the democrat side, they have one or two solutions, double down on the failing status quo, the aca, which is not sustainable, or they say lets turn it over to the government and have a onesizefitsall Government Run Health Care system. We believe either of those scenarios would be a disaster for the American Public, so we feel there is a moral obligation. It has gotten raving reviews so far across the spectrum and is a great framework for us to go forward with two objectives, we believe we need to protect vulnerable americans, meaning p with preexisting conditions, chronic illnesses and Serious Health concerns, but also bring down the cost of health care. That means deductibles, premiums, and Overall Health care costs. They are not mutually exclusive. Scott does the president have have you briefed the president on the plan . Does he support the plan . Rep. Johnson yes, weve kept the white house apprised of our efforts all year, beginning in march after the president made the statement. Weve been close coordination with the administration knowing that they are also developing plans in the health care space. I mentioned we met with the president last tuesday in the oval office, that was to talk about indepth the Health Care Plan. He is very grateful for it. I spoke with him in the morning before we released it and did our Big Press Conference rolling out the plan, i told him the highlights and reminded him of some of the things we had been working on and talked about in previous months and he was very encouraging. And very grateful that 146 members, conservatives in the house, are stepping forward with real ideas and solutions. We believe it is really important going into the next election cycle to talk about solutions and present sound ideas. As you know, the u. S. Court of appeals for the fifth circuit is likely to issue any day now their ruling in the as are case, and challenge to the underpinnings of obamacare itself, the aca. It is really important right now to put sound ideas on the table and have everyone talk about debating those things. We are ready to legislate if we have that moment. If we dont have it now, since pelosi and the democrats are in charge, we will put our ideas on the table for what we will do when we maintain the majority. Katherine you previously led efforts to make changes to the foreign agents registration act, which requires lobbyists who lobby on the interest of foreign entities to register with the Justice Department so that we can keep track of who is peddling that influence. I have heard there might be a new proposal in the works. Are you planning on or working on a new one . Rep. Johnson i never let go of that objective, its one of the first pieces of legislation i filed when i was a freshman in congress a couple of years ago. It is an idea whose time has come and i think it is a bipartisan concern, something we can get folks across the aisle to work on together. We just need that her disclosure, better information about who exactly is lobbying members of congress. I think that is not a controversial notion that we need to clean up and close the loopholes in the registration act. I do think there has been some work, i think senator grassley and others on the senate side have had similar legislation, and we were going to do companion pieces in the last congress. We are still thinking about it, working on and looking for an opportunity to advance the legislation because i think it would be important for transparency and integrity for our system. Katherine do you think as the impeachment inquiry moves forward, there has been questions raised about who is representing different ukrainian entities for the u. S. Government do you see that as a w