Nancy Pelosi to Speak Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival, As Trump Impeachment Looms

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the keynote speaker, with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith as moderator, at The Texas Tribune Festival this Saturday.. Image via Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune.

By Chase Karacostas. First published on The Texas Tribune

Just a few days after declaring that the U.S. House of Representatives will begin a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will appear in Austin as the keynote speaker Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival.

This is Pelosi's third time to speak at the festival, and it's one of her first major public appearances after Tuesday's impeachment investigation announcement. The California Democrat's interview, moderated by Tribune CEO Evan Smith, will be from 7:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theater.

Impeachment is sure to be a major topic of discussion, as is Trump's July phone call with the Ukrainian president requesting an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

Before this week, Pelosi had fended off demands from members of her caucus to pursue impeachment, even after a long-awaited report from special counsel Robert Mueller was released. Much of her hesitation lay with the desire to protect her party's hard-won majority in the House. However, her tune changed this week after reports that the call with the Ukrainian president was the reason for an "urgent and credible" whistleblower complaint filed last month.

On Wednesday, the White House released a record of the call showing Trump implored newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden's son, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company that Ukrainian authorities have investigated. While Biden was vice president, he urged Ukraine to fire its top prosecutor, though the country's investigation into the company was reportedly dormant at the time.

Trump put nearly $400 million of Congress-approved security assistance on hold in the days before the call, leading some to accuse him of implicitly dangling the revocation of aid if Ukraine did not investigate Biden.

Pelosi's panel will be streamed live on the Tribune's website.