McCarthy’s impeachment gamble carries deep risks

Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) decision to launch an impeachment inquiry of President Biden carries serious risks as well as opportunities for his party. 

The politics of McCarthy’s decision are, at one level, easy to understand. 

The Speaker, who famously took 15 rounds of voting to be elected to his current position, is under pressure from his right-flank to take action.  

The decision to move forward with an inquiry is a middle ground, of a kind, between doing nothing and pursuing articles of impeachment straight off the bat, as firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tried to do in June.