Jake Tapper Clashes With GOP Congressman on Senate Trial: You Know Some of These Claims Are Not True

Congressman Mike Johnson (R-LA), a member of President Donald Trump’s‘s impeachment team, joined Jake Tapper on CNN today in a contentious interview over the trial and whether witnesses should be called.

“So former Chief of Staff John Kelly says he believes that John Bolton’s claim that President Trump directly told him security aid to Ukraine was dependent on investigating the Bidens –  Kelly also said that he thinks Bolton is a man of integrity and should be heard from, what do you think?” Tapper asked.

Johnson then responded that Kelly is not in the Senate, while dismissing Bolton and Kelly stating that they would not change the facts.

“Well, I respect General Kelly and he is not a member of the U.S. Senate who has to decide this. You have heard a number of senators coming out as various pieces of the defense have been presented and they have said it is a compelling presentation and they understand that the facts don’t change regardless of what Bolton or Kelly or anyone else says, and of course the president himself said that he did not tell John Bolton any of the things that we are hearing have been alleged,” Johnson stated.

Johnson then continued that the articles of impeachment aren’t even valid, to begin with.

“First, you have to decide if the articles of impeachment are valid on the face, and they are not, because abuse of power and obstruction of Congress is an impeachment offense,” Johnson continued.

Tapper then questioned Johnson’s claim that those are not impeachable offenses, pointing to the Nixon trial and the Clinton impeachment.

At one point he brought up one argument from Team Trump and said, “You know that there were House Republicans who were in SCIF is the larger point, and you know that there were House Republicans there.”

“There were, but there were a small subset,” Johnson responded.

“48 were allowed,” Tapper added.

“Yes,” Johnson stated.

“So when Pat Cipollone – the White House counsel – went on the floor of the Senate and said that House Republicans were not allowed in the SCIF, which you know is not true, did that bother you?” Tapper asked of Johnson.

Johnson then dodged the question and stated that he hadn’t seen the evidence in there either.

“48 Republicans is not nothing,” Tapper stated, asking if the president’s impeachment team’s misleading statements to the senate was bothersome to Johnson.

“No, Jake. This is the reality. This investigation went 79 days and 71 of the 79 days, the president’s counsel was blocked out of the proceeding and Adam Schiff did not allow them in the basement, and they were not there for the presentation,” adding “that is what Jay Sekulow and the counsel is complaining about it is not fair.”

“No, no, he was specifically talking about the House Judiciary Committee process and I will put the quote up on Twitter so people can see what I am talking about.”

“Do it,” Johnson responded before being cut off by Tapper with another question.

“You can’t get 75% of the American people to agree on anything, but they want witnesses, and why block them?” asked Tapper regarding the blocking of witnesses by Republicans.

Johnson stated that “a lot” of the 75% of people who support calling witnesses are Trump supporters that want to hear from the Bidens, the whistle-blower, and Adam Schiff.

“At the end of the day the summary by Professor Dershowitz was right and the rest of this is not needed, because they know the facts, and the facts don’t change and so we have enough here,” Johnson concluded.

Watch above, via CNN.

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