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

December 19, 2019

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.