Democratic Rep. Harley Rouda (Calif.) said he will formally back an impeachment inquiry sometime this month, after saying two months ago that he was not elected to impeach President Trump.
"NEWS: Rep. ROUDA, a swing district Democrat, tells us it’s safe to infer he will come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry this month — he had set a June 30 deadline to decide but said WH stonewalling was showing no signs of easing," Politico's Kyle Cheney tweeted Tuesday morning.
Rouda had previously said he did not intend to pursue impeach charges against Trump.
"I did not get elected by the constituents of Orange County to go to Washington to impeach Trump. I went there to get the work that our country desperately deserves," Rouda told a local television host two months ago.
"The best way to handle it is to vote him out of office in 18 months," he added.
In 2018, Rouda became the first Democrat to win California's 48th Congressional District since it was created in 1993. Rouda defeated incumbent Rep. Dana Rohrabacher to win the coastal Orange County seat by seven points.
Orange County has a long history of supporting Republican candidates over the past half-century but voters in 2018 elected Democrats to all seven Congressional districts that overlap with the county's boundaries.
Rouda is the second Democrat who flipped an Orange County district in 2018 to come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry. Rep. Katie Porter, who won the 45th district by just over four points, came out in favor of an inquiry last week.
Recent polls show that more than two-thirds of Orange County voters do not support impeachment.