Kellyanne Conway laid the groundwork for President Donald Trump to get rid of special counsel Robert Mueller as he expands the Russia investigation to include business dealings.
The White House adviser told Fox News that Trump's attacks on Mueller -- which has reportedly split his own legal team -- were an important measure of "accountability and transparency."
"Where is this going?" Conway said. "Are Americans comfortable with that, with the taxpayers funding this with this going off of all types of chutes and ladders?"
She agreed with Trump that the FBI and congressional investigations were "witch hunts," and she accused Mueller of building a team riddled with partisan conflicts of interest.
"Not only did these Democrat, presumably, lawyers donate a lot of money to the left side of the political aisle, one of them actually was a lawyer for the Clinton Foundation," Conway said.
Host Steve Doocy agreed, and suggested that Mueller was pursuing a personal vendetta against Trump for passing over him to return to the FBI as director after the president fired James Comey.
"There are all sorts of conflicts, which it sounds like what the White House is trying to do is, you are trying to put pressure on the team, maybe certain members of the team, legal team on special counsel (to) recuse themselves," Doocy said.
Conway suggested Mueller and his team of prosecutors were part of the swamp that Trump promised voters he would drain.
"Steve, here's the relevance of that -- people should at least know it," she said. "Donald Trump went to Washington to disrupt and expose the system, just to blow that secret door off of its hinges and have more accountability and transparency in a system that thrives on the opposite. So the same applies here. Let's at least, you know, you're saying put on pressure -- let's have a disinfectant, let's at least let the transparency and accountability speak for itself. It's relevant that people know what the motivations are, and that is not an attack on the team. That is what's fair is fair."
She accused Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the ranking Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, of grandstanding on TV about the Russia probe they're helping to lead.
"I was looking at the statistics this morning, they have been on TV more than they have been presiding over these hearings," Conway said. "They have been on TV. I mean, literally, Adam Schiff walks around with a cut out of the Capitol above his head, instead of having the hearings. The investigations have stalled, because, you know, where is this going?"
