Of course, there is no suggestion of treason or bribery present here. The House has an obligation to consider the evidence in view of that very high Constitutional threshold. The Framers included specific provisions for impeachment in the Constitution itself because they understood that the most severe political remedy was necessary to remedy the most serious forms of public wrongdoing. Impeachment is a basic constitutional safeguard, designed both to correct harms to the system of government itself and to protect the people from ongoing malfeasance. Nothing less than the gravest executive wrongdoing can justify impeachment.
Presidential impeachment is thus a matter of incomparable gravity.
No matter, then, can be of higher political importance than our considering whether, in any given instance, this act of choice is to be undone, and the chosen president dismissed from office in disgrace. The Framers knew this. They were familiar with English common law and parliamentary history and they borrowed the expression directly from the English law of impeachment. The Framers intended the standard to be a high one. The English cases included misappropriation of public funds, interfering in elections, accepting bribes, neglect of duty, and various forms of corruption.