During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, George Mason expressed a concern that they were building a system which might someday allow a president to use his pardoning power to pardon someone that he had ordered to engage in wrongdoing on his behalf, thereby preventing detection of the presidents own wrongdoing.
James Madison tried to alleviate George Mason's fears by pointing out that if Congress ever suspected that a president was engaged in that sort of behavior, the House would impeach and the Senate would remove him from office if found guilty.
Mason's fears were not quelled, and he didn't sign the Constitution, but we have in the records of the convention, clear evidence of the wishes of the founders.
The impeachment of a president tends to be a partisan issue, but it shouldn't be. Good people of all political persuasions should be able to find common ground in that we all value our constitution. Impeachment is the remedy that the founders wanted us to use if we were ever to find ourselves in exactly the circumstances that we now find ourselves in.
The White House is claiming executive privilege allows them to ignore subpoenas from Congress, which is investigating the numerous crimes of the administration. This is just the latest in a serious of actions which undermines our constitution and the system of checks and balances that the founders established.
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