It’s the essence of responsibly provocative, with an accent on provocative: a Harvard Law School professor making a case for impeachment of Donald Trump based on his badmouthing of the press.

Noah Feldman, who contributes to Bloomberg News, offers a suggestive if debatable case during the latest episode of “Trumpcast,” a podcast hosted by Slate boss Jacob Weisberg.

In sum, the fact that the Founding Fathers meant the Constitution to protect the press as essential to democracy, he says, could lead to an impeachment precisely because of Trump’s “subtle, careful, slow, undercutting of press freedom.”

Feldman and Weisberg head to Ankara, or at least the subject of Turkey, and the government’s insidious assault on the media. They find some equivalence, even if they don’t wind up quite on the same page.

The Feldman scenario is clearly premised on the Democrats winning back at least the House of Representatives in next year’s midterm elections. And while Feldman underscores his deep belief in the First Amendment, he argues “I’m not talking about criminalizing the president’s actions, I’m talking about holding him accountable, and holding him accountable under the rubric of impeachment.”

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“The real purpose of impeachment at the deepest level is for Congress to express its beliefs about what the right way to be president is, with respect to respect for democracy and the rule of law. And that includes not taking actions that are effectively intended to curtail press freedoms, to frighten the press, especially through corporate pressure, into ceasing to be effective critics. That is how democracy erodes.”

Weisberg is a Trump critic but not convinced. He understands the point Feldman is making and how that can be an abuse of power. But he thinks the press would itself like the idea of impeachment based on being attacked and that the best antidote is more speech, not less. And might such a precedent justify going after most any president for most anything?

“I don’t think Trump’s activities are so ordinary, so boring, so plain vanilla that going after him would set a precedent for going after everybody,” says Feldman.

Then current odds on the Democrats retaking the House are long. But those elections are far away. And were they to pull the upset, some would quibble with skeptical Weisberg’s guess that there would then be a 50-50 chance of impeachment against a man who calls the press “the enemy.” (Trumpcast)