U.S. politics: #4 Impeachment

Welcome back to the U.S. Politics show. Yesterday, we talked about the Electoral College, and how the voting system works. Today, we’ll talk about the opposite, how a government official could be “fired”, or in other words, “impeached”.

Impeachment could be caused by high crimes, treason, bribery, or other serious abuses of power. Though anybody from the public could demand an impeachment, but the real process could only be started by the House of Representatives, through examining evidence, then passing votes. If the votes were, for example, 3 to 1, then that official is impeached. But if he or she is really removed from office, comes down to the Senate to decide. The Senate is the judge and jury. If it’s either president or vice president that's getting removed, then the chief justice of the Supreme Court presides.

Convictions require a supermajority of two-thirds, and if it passes, the official is removed from office, and according to the charges, might never hold office again.

To me, this system is fair enough, since impeachment and removal from office are so rare, and we need to go through so many stages, and that maybe, in the end, you might not get to two-thirds.