Updated at 8:55 a.m., Sept. 29, 2019: to include Trump campaign spokeswoman's comment.

AUSTIN -- Even as she seeks to project resolve in the nation’s impeachment crisis, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging Americans -- and especially fellow Democrats -- to take no joy from the Ukraine scandal that has engulfed Republican Donald Trump’s presidency.

Appearing in Austin at the Texas Tribune Festival late Saturday, Pelosi called for a somber approach and unity.

The California Democrat said she’s praying for the country.

“I have been prayerful and careful and weighing the equities about how strong is this,” she said of allegations of Trump wrongdoing.

Explaining why she pivoted this week to support an impeachment inquiry, Pelosi cited a CIA officer’s whistleblower complaint about Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“He gave us no choice by shaking down the head of a country while withholding U.S. military assistance for -- do me a favor and help in my campaign,” she said of Trump. “That gave us no choice.”

"People say well, if you go down this path of impeachment, that's all the press will write about," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quipped as she spoke with Texas Tribune cofounder Evan Smith late Saturday. "Well, that's all they write about anyway." (Sergio Flores / Getty Images)

Asked by Tribune chief executive Evan Smith if Trump possibly could bring the House’s inquiry to a halt, Pelosi replied, “If he has some ... exculpatory information to undo everything that is out there, then come forward with it.”

She continued, “Let’s see it. Show us your tax returns. Show us your Deutsche Bank and what’s happening there. Show us ... accounts, emoluments and the rest of it.”

A spokeswoman for Trump's re-election campaign said Pelosi, instead of pursuing impeachment, should help the president pass his renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and solve a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Nancy Pelosi is more interested in her baseless impeachment threat than she is in doing her job and passing the USMCA, addressing the humanitarian crisis at the border, and working with President Trump," said spokeswoman Samantha Cotten, who called Pelosi an obstructionist and "just another coastal elite.

Pelosi spoke at the end of a dizzying, fast-changing week of political bombshells.

Ten days ago, the House Judiciary Committee’s first impeachment-related hearing, at which former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski testified, was widely considered a dud. At that point, 136 of 235 House Democrats supported an impeachment inquiry. But on Monday through Wednesday, as word of the whistleblower complaint leaked, 59 more House Democrats came out in favor of an impeachment inquiry.

Pelosi, who for months held back the pro-impeachment fervor of much of her caucus, went further, calling not just for an inquiry but also for impeachment. By Friday, as the Washington Post reported, all but 11 House Democrats were on board for an inquiry.

Wearing a bright yellow dress and a matching necklace and heels, Pelosi turned sideways on a couch and continuously faced the audience as she answered -- and at times, parried -- Smith's questions.

She welcomed Texas music icon Willie Nelson to the historic Paramount Theater’s front row. The arts will be important in healing the country during and after the impeachment storm, she said.

1 / 2"We have to begin a healing and mending process," Pelosi said. "The arts are going to help us. When we listen to Willie Nelson, we're not Democrats or Republicans. We're all Americans."(Sergio Flores / Getty Images) 2 / 2Music legend Willie Nelson waves to the crowd as he arrives to listen to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speak at The Texas Tribune Festival late Saturday, in Austin.(Nick Wagner / AP)

Though Pelosi sprinkled her answers with seemingly premeditated references to sitting Democratic members of Congress from Texas, she declined Smith's invitation to identify top Republican targets in the state. She agreed with those, though, who say Texas is "ground zero" in 2020.

"Yes indeed. This is it,” she said. "First of all, we have to reelect Lizzie Fletcher and ... Colin Allred," two Democrats who unseated Republican congressmen last fall. "Texas is our hope for the future,” she said. "I'm not just talking about Democrats [or the country]. I'm talking about the world."

On impeachment, Pelosi said her “moment of truth” came when she read the whistleblower’s letter to chairmen of congressional intelligence panels and then heard Trump’s responses.

“I never said I wasn’t doing it,” she said of impeachment. “I said when we have the facts, if we have the facts, I will be ready.”

“How we go forward is very important,” said Pelosi, the nation’s first female House speaker, who grew up in a political family in Baltimore.

“We want it to be unifying by sharing information and making sure the public is aware of how we got here. This is again, as serious as it gets - heartbreaking in every way. I hope everybody will be somber about it and not see anything positive” in Trump’s predicament, she said.