Trump on defense over impeachment

President Donald Trump is wasting no time in attempting to torch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's impeachment gamble in a battle that will define his presidency and the 2020 election.

Trump has pledged to publish an un-redacted and declassified transcript on Wednesday of a phone call with Ukraine's leader at the center of what Democrats allege is his abuse of presidential power. The White House is also planning to release to Congress a whistleblower's complaint that triggered the week-long crisis that has rocked the Trump presidency.
Trump's decision marks a departure for a White House that has a record of obstructing oversight and bending fact. So his critics will await events on Wednesday with particular interest.
The transcript and the congressional reaction to the whistleblower's report could be critical in establishing the early terrain of the impeachment fight and to shaping public opinion that will ultimately dictate how it turns out.
Regardless of the outcome, Trump finds himself at the center of a rare and historic showdown as only the fourth president in US history to face the realistic threat of impeachment.

Pelosi took a huge risk by formally opening impeachment hearings, following months of reservations, apparently without knowing the contents of either document. If the information contained in both does not fully back up the seriousness of her charge that Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors, she may be seen to have overreached.
That reality reflects the momentous gamble the Speaker is taking in using the ultimate constitutional instrument to wage a political battle that is neither clearly defined nor guaranteed to end in a way that benefits her party. If impeachment fails, she could unwittingly cause Trump to consider his unrestrained presidency that has frequently buffeted congressional norms as validated. And she could pave the way to the Democrats' ultimate nightmare -- a second Trump term.
Still there is no constitutional requirement for an impeachment inquiry to end in a full vote in the House.
Even if the House inquiry ends with Articles of Impeachment and a majority vote in the chamber, no one believes that the Republican Senate will provide the two-thirds majority needed to oust Trump from office.
So the impeachment collision will soon turn into a battle for America's political soul: How voters react could decide who wins the White House in 2020 and set the country's course for years to come.
Trump insists that the transcript of a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will show that he did not threaten to withhold $400 million in military aid to the former Soviet state unless it opened an investigation into Democratic front-runner Joe Biden and his son. There is no evidence to back up claims that either is guilty of corruption in their dealings with Ukraine.
But Pelosi has already argued that Trump's public admission that he spoke to Zelensky about Biden in itself represents an abuse of power by a President seeking foreign help to win reelection.
"The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the President's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections," Pelosi said in a somber news conference Tuesday.
"Therefore, today, I am announcing the House of Representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry."
Trump blasted the impeachment gambit as an attempt by Democrats to ruin his big trip to the United Nations General Assembly, and decried their "breaking news Witch Hunt garbage."
Pelosi told her troops on Tuesday they had reached a "moment of truth" -- a comment that is as true for her long career as the highest ranking female official in US history, as it is for the nation. It's unlikely both Trump and Pelosi can survive this power duel. Democrats hope that it will expose Trump as so unfit for office that it will prove fatal to his hopes of reelection.
Trump hopes to ignite a backlash against Pelosi, and to use the impeachment drama to inspire his base and more moderate, sympathetic Republicans to a massive turnout in November 2020.
Ultimately, if the fight resolves in Trump's favor, the next election could throw up the historic anomaly of a President who was impeached yet still won a second term.