If one doesn’t do his/her job properly or has integrity issues, he/she could be fired.
But since the US President is not selected based on an interview, but through the election, he/she can’t be fired just like that, as it would mean overturning the decision of millions of voters.
So, for the US President to be fired, there needs to be solid evidence, coming from a detailed investigation and voting by lawmakers of the country.
This investigation, in simple terms, is called impeachment and it could lead to the President being fired (guilty) or acquitted (not guilty).
Anyone from the public can accuse the President of wrongdoing (freedom of speech), but not all demands are given importance.
But if the accusation seems serious, the House of Representatives (The Lower House) can refer the matter (complaint received) to a few committees, set up for this purpose.
Now, these committees can’t impeach the President – they can just share the recommendation and identify if there are any charges worthy of debate in the Parliament (US Congress).
If there is sufficient evidence of wrongdoing in the report, the House of Representatives (which have members from both the Democratic Party and the Republican party) debates and votes on each of the charges (called articles of impeachment).
If a majority of the House of Representatives votes ‘yes’ on even one article of impeachment, the President is considered impeached but is not necessarily removed from office.
Once a President has been impeached, the Senate (The Upper House) holds a trial, and if 2/3rd of the Senate votes to convict the President, he/she shall be removed from office.
Donald Trump became the 3rd US President to be impeached when the House voted to impeach him in December 2019 but he was not convicted.
This time the House wants to impeach him for provoking the riots and if does get impeached, he will become the only US President to have been impeached twice.
Though impeachment doesn’t mean being guilty, it is still a big deal because this means the President was found to have been involved in some wrongdoing that required investigation.
Before Trump, two Presidents were impeached (Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998) but neither was removed, following the trials.
In practical terms, this impeachment doesn’t mean much because Donald Trump’s term as a President would, in any case, be over before the result of the trial (if he is impeached) is out.
