The White House is refusing to participate in Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing on President Donald Trump's impeachment because doing so would "legitimize" it, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway said Monday.
"Why legitimize a process?" Conway said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "The Mueller investigation was an executive branch, Department of Justice investigation. The president participated. We had 1.4 million pieces of paper produced; we let all these witnesses testify. People's lives [were] turned upside down."
Democrats, however, are focused on impeachment to the point that they can't "take a minute" for vital legislation on matters like infrastructure or reducing drug prices," she added.
"He is over in NATO and they are trying to impeach him," said Conway. "America sees the split-screen government."
Meanwhile, Wednesday's hearing will be an exercise in constitutional law, said Conway.
"I paid a lot of money for my law degree," she said. "Now we'll get it for free from a bunch of constitutional law experts. Who are they? What are their biases? What have they said about the president in the past?"
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff should be there to testify as a fact witness, said Conway.
"No person who is overseeing a proceeding would be allowed to be so partial and biased, and it got them nowhere," she said of the hearings Schiff chaired.
Conway also rejected arguments comparing the Trump impeachment to those of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, pointing out in those cases there was evidence of crimes.
"Make no mistake," she said. "The Democrats and their allies have been at this for over three years ... the voters wanted Donald Trump to be their president, and they should admit they have no idea how to beat him in 2020. They fear he will be re-elected and they want to remove him before that."