Trump excoriates Pelosi and Democrats in letter to House speaker, calls impeachment ‘declaring open war on American Democracy’

President Trump on Tuesday sent an extraordinary letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressing his “strongest and most powerful protest” against impeachment, which he described as a partisan “crusade” by Democrats.

“This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history,” the president wrote in the six-page missive.

The letter came as the House was moving closer to impeaching Trump, as the Rules Committee met to set the parameters for the historic debate expected...