House Speaker Kevin McCarthy slammed those in his own caucus seeking to file a "motion to vacate" on Thursday, telling them to "file the ******* motion." 

That came after some Republicans criticized McCarthy's opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, claiming that the move wasn't enough. 

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy challenged his GOP opponents to follow through with filing a motion to vacate the chair Thursday in a closed-door meeting with the conference.

 Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz had criticized McCarthy on Tuesday, giving him a list of demands while threatening a motion for McCarthy to vacate the chair.

“If you want to file the motion,” McCarthy said to his GOP colleagues Thursday. “File the [censored] motion.”

There are members of the Republican caucus who want to move right into voting on articles of impeachment. McCarthy has chosen to take a more formal path, beginning with an inquiry that could hopefully build enough support so that articles of impeachment would pass a floor vote. 

In my opinion, McCarthy is doing the right thing. It is clear that he does not currently have the votes for articles of impeachment to pass so that a trial can be forced in the Senate. In fact, it seems likely he didn't even have the votes for an impeachment inquiry. Notably, and somewhat surprisingly, he backtracked and made use of the Pelosi precedent to open one anyway. He deserves credit for that. 

Further, as I laid out in another recent article, Republicans need to stop grandstanding for clout and accept the reality that the impeachment inquiry is the point. Constantly pushing to the extreme may garner clicks, but it's a terrible strategy in this case. 

To rush or even skip the inquiry would throw away all the possible political advantages that could come from deeply investigating Joe Biden's corruption. He has earned the inquiry by his own actions, and there is more than enough evidence to justify opening one. Yet, rushing to a full impeachment vote that would end up failing would do nothing but give Biden a massive win, and he's in desperate need of one of those these days.

To put it succinctly, it's time to lay off McCarthy and let him work. There is nothing to be gained by having a futile leadership fight in the middle of trying to impeach a Democrat president. That would be hopelessly self-destructive. Work smarter, not harder.