Covers the capitol hill ,ewspaper and Catherine Mcmanis also the capitol hill reporter. The first question. Scott thank you for being here. Republicans have been up until now complaining about the cap the impeachment process. As these hearings and depositions have been behind closed doors, but now this Impeachment Vote looking ahead at the process as it moves into the public, 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 on process. Can you talk about the arguments on the merits will look like Going Forward . Rep. Johnson thats a good question. We just had a lengthy press conference after the house floor after the vote on the floor, which was bipartisan, you saw two democrats vote with the republicans not to proceed with this resolution. But we have 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 be able to see all of this evidence that chairman schiff has decided to keep closed off in the basement with these supersecret depositions and transcripts that even i as a member of the house judiciary committee, the one with appropriate jurisdiction over impeachment, am not allowed to see. We issued a challenge today in that press conference, i think every republican member was standing there together. Lees belgian said he has been hearing all of this and he challenged chairman schiff to release the transcripts. Lets put the facts out there, that is our we want the american point. People to be able to judge for themselves the merits of these claims and allegations, and we as duly elected representatives of the people should certainly have a right to review that as well. Thats our charge Going Forward. I think it is a good question and one that has yet to be answered. Scott you have any concerns at all 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 zelensky. We have some of the Opening Statements from some of the people who have testified, including bill taylor and Lieutenant Colonel vindman, who was here this week, who have raised concerns of the chain of up the chain of command. Is there anything you have seen what has come out in public that you have concerns with . Rep. Johnson what we know is that the transcript, that the president himself made an unprecedented decision to release that almost immediately when the charges were first being 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, in that super secret hearing room, i am told by my colleagues they are not even at liberty to talk to us about the substance, but we are told they have complained loudly about the process. They are not allowed to ask certain questions. Certain questions chairman , schiff is not allowing the witnesses to answer. That is not a fair process. In the past when there has been an impeachment 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 today on the hill this week on the hill that he has been in a number of years combined because he wrote specifically about this day. This was a fear of the founders, that partisan politics would be driving an impeachment quest. That is what we have here. The democrats determined a long time ago what the outcome of this was going to be. It is a predetermined outcome, 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 it assaults our sense of fairness. Katherine congressman, as these hearings move into the public sphere, and lawmakers and the public both will be able to see what some of these witnesses, i know democrats are plan to bring back for public hearings, do you have any concern with the attacks this week from the president and some former members of congress against Lieutenant Colonel vindman against the erosion of trust in the Intelligence Community or military community or the 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 who were at the white house on tuesday, and the president vented some frustration to us. I think he is rightfully frustrated about this. He has been denied the basic rights to due process in this charade that adam schiff and his colleagues have engaged upon. And so you know 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, most deepest concerns we have about this whole sham we keep using that word, is not an epitet, it is an actual summary of what is happening here if the American People dont have faith in the impeachment inquiry in a just and fair way, they start to just throw their hands up and give up on the congress itself and ultimately on the republic. We are still an experiment on the world stage. A constitutional republic. We are only 243 years into this. We dont know how long it can last. One thing is presupposed is that you will have fairness in the system, 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. Greta congressman, 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 that it was a memo and not a transcript of the phone call. Colonel vindman has testified there were words in that phone call not included in the readout or the memo that was made that was 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, nor do you or anyone else if there is an actual recording of the call. I suppose there may be. But 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, is drafted by a number of persons listening in, not just one transcriptionist. And so a lot of faith has been put into the credibility and the accuracy of that transcript. Look this is part of the , factfinding that should be going on in my committee in the house judiciary committee. We are the ones that 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. Resolution that was passed today doesnt allow for fairness either. Thats what we voted against it. It allows continued unilateral Authority Chairman schiff and first two ultimately it goes opportunity to do that. Resolution that was passed today to chairman nadler, they have ultimate authority to veto what the other side may do, in 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. Greta congressman should the , president of United States ask a foreign power to investigate that, in the investigation, it would benefit him, the president , politically . Is that appropriate . Rep. Johnson what the president was asking was for an 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 that would happen 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 these a dialogue about , things like that. There was some deep corruption involved here. The president was i think justified in his zeal to get answers on that. And so on its face, thats what it comes down to, arguing the substance. Some people might quibble about whether it was appropriate for the president to say it the way he did or what have you, but this is not impeachable conduct, this is not a high crime misdemeanor, and i think that will be the inevitable conclusion that most americans will see. Greta 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, but that is not what the president asked, arguably its not what he was intending, and he was going after the corruption with a corrupt oligarch, a corrupt corporation, the idea that a Vice President s son has been hired at 50,000 a month to serve on a board for which he had no experience or insight. He had never done anything in the oil and gas industry or had any connection or 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. So i mean thats why people read , the transcript and go where is the there . I mean yesterday, tom brokaw, someone who everyone respects in the media, he came out and said i dont see it, i dont see what democrats are basing this on. He contrasted it with the clinton impeachment process where they were clear facts. They dont have that here and thats why so many of us are so frustrated. Scott mr. Johnson 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, your former colleague and the acting chief of staff 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 well you know i , suppose they could study what previous administrations have done. This is exceedingly rare, this will only be the fourth time in u. S. History this has happened, and there is good reason for that. We all remember of course during the clinton impeachment, i think they did have a war room and a point person, a quarterback so to speak 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 is a serious hand at the wheel. He will give good counsel. What we have to guard so jealously is the process, the procedure, and rule of law. That is what is going to be far longlasting beyond the Trump Administration and all of this, the Lasting Legacy of this will be how this congress and the legislative branch handled this important affair. I hope they are watching it closely and all of us are on our toes the entire time. We certainly 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 both 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 that you have heard could be in the open hearings . Rep. Johnson i will tell you who i would like to ask questions of first and foremost is adam schiff himself. In the press conference after the vote if he wants to pretend ar, he needs to submit for a q a himself. I have an important list of questions for adam schiff. I would like to know first of all what relationship he and his staff had with the whistleblower in advance of all of this. And how all of that developed. There is a lot of Unanswered Questions that go to the very 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 then have the opportunity to ask questions of some of the folks who have already testified down in the skiff, 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. Greta congressman what have you , been told either from the house lawyers or otherwise about the whistleblowers name and whether or not you all could publicly say who this person is . Rep. Johnson thats the point, we have no idea. I mean, there is all sorts of innuendo and rumor around the hill on rumors like this, 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. I am not sure anyone else knows it. There is all sorts of allegations and rumors, but we dont know anything. Scott why dont we move on to some policy issues . I know as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, you have just 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 plan 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 a week ago, last tuesday. It is the product of almost a year of work down in the trenches. Everyone will remember in 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 by telephone. And i said, i thank you for saying that. The Republican Study Committee, which is the largest caucus of conservatives in congress, we have 146 members we divide into , working groups and task forces, and one of our Priority Task forces in this congress has been on the issue of health care. The Health Care Task force led by Roger Marshall kansas, my colleague who is the chair of that. We have had a number of republican members in congress and others with positions of expertise in the area working regularly meeting on january since january on this. 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 think were the best ideas and published it in a 66 page document that we entitled a framework. It is a framework for personalized, affordable care. There is a deep and serious, stark contrast between what we are proposing and what the democrats are proposing. If you listen to those running for president on the democrat side, they basically have one of two solutions, double down on the failing status quo, the aca, which is a trajectory that 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 a moral obligation to step into this space. It has gotten raving reviews so far across the spectrum, and its a great framework for us to go forward. With two objectives, we believe we need to protect vulnerable americans, meaning people with preexisting conditions, chronic illnesses and Serious Health concerns, but also bring down the cost of health care. That means in deductibles, premiums, and Overall Health care costs. Those two pursuits are not mutually exclusive. We are showing a way to do that. Scott does the president have have you briefed the president on the plan . Is thereby in from the president is there buyin from the president . 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. So we worked in close coordination. 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. Of course i spoke with him in the morning before we released it and did our Big Press Conference rolling out the plan, 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 this next election cycle to talk about solutions and present sound ideas that are on the table. Also as you all know, the u. S. Court of appeals for the fifth circuit is likely to issue any day now their ruling in the azar 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. And if we dont have it now, since pelosi and the democrats are in charge, we are going to put our ideas on the table for what we will do when we maintain the majori