Congressman Jimmy Panetta joins party-line vote to impeach President Donald Trump.

When U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, was first running for Congress in 2016, he thought he'd be serving alongside Hillary Clinton in the White House. Along the campaign trail, he pledged to work with her to advance the Democratic Party's agenda.

But it was not to be, and instead, Panetta was elected alongside President Donald Trump, who has upended the nation's political norms every step of the way.  

Even after the so-called "Blue Wave" of progressive Democrats were elected to the House in 2018, Panetta resisted calls to impeach the president.

During special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Panetta told the Weekly, “There’s got to be evidence before we take on anything as major as the impeachment of the president of the United States. [Otherwise], It’s a wasted bullet. A wasted, expensive, silver bullet.”

On Wednesday, Dec. 18, Panetta appeared to be persuaded by the evidence, and joined in an almost entirely party-line vote to impeach President Trump. 

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-197 to impeach Trump on Article I, abuse of power, and voted 229-198 to impeach Trump on Article II, obstruction of Congress. Panetta voted yea on both articles of impeachment. 

Trump is the third U.S. president, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, to be impeached. Richard Nixon was subject to impeachment proceedings but he resigned before the House could vote. 

Only four Democrats did not vote to impeach on both counts; one, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, is a presidential candidate for 2020. Another, New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, is reported to be leaving the Democratic Party. 

In a statement released after the historic vote, Panetta echoed many sentiments he's shared before about consulting evidence before taking a position, and his reluctance to go this route—something that also resembles House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's approach to the process.

"I did not come to Congress to impeach the president," Panetta said. "But, I swore an oath to protect our country and defend the Constitution. That is why, today, I voted to approve two articles of impeachment against this president for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. 

"In order to arrive at that solemn and somber conclusion, I used many of the same skills that I acquired early on as a former prosecutor. By putting politics and emotions aside to focus on the underlying evidence and applying those facts to the articles of impeachment, I found it clear that the president subverted our national interest for his own personal and political interest.

"The president then repeatedly ignored and refused to cooperate with the numerous requests and subpoenas of the investigation by Congress.  Moreover, the president proudly admitted this conduct and refuses to acknowledge that he did anything wrong.

"I do not take pride in impeaching a sitting president of the United States.  But as the U.S. representative for the Central Coast of California, I am upholding my obligation under the United States Constitution and to protect the future of our democracy."

It remains unclear when the articles of impeachment will be referred to the U.S. Senate for a trial; the president will only be removed from office if two-thirds of senators vote to remove him, an unlikely threshold especially given the Republican majority in the Senate.