Despite Democrats continually deeming Joe Biden's candidacy dead, he has more or less maintained not only a dominant lead in the 2020 primary but also in head-to-head polling for the general election. President Trump knows it, and Democratic leaders have made it increasingly clear they know it — but they want Biden to win.

The timing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to finally send over the articles of impeachment to the Senate was curious enough. In waiting to allow the trial to begin, Pelosi all but ensured that Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar would be stuck phoneless on Capitol Hill in these crucial two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Although Sanders maintains a slim lead over former Vice President Joe Biden in New Hampshire and both Sanders and Warren could eke out a win in Iowa, every moment spent in an impeachment trial is one where Biden gets nearly unfettered face time with early state voters.

Biden is already slated to clean up Nevada, South Carolina, and the bulk of big Super Tuesday states. If Warren and Sanders collapse in Iowa and New Hampshire because of the impeachment trial, Biden could effectively lock down the nomination in a little more than a month.

To assume that Pelosi intended this outcome involves not only a great deal of cynicism but also a good deal of competence. So, naturally, Adam Schiff would belie that competence on the first official day of the impeachment trial.

Given the available evidence, the central question of the abuse of power charge against Trump is his intention. Did Trump try to use congressionally authorized funds to compel Ukraine into damaging his domestic foe, or did he do it because he genuinely bought into the CrowdStrike conspiracy theory? Democrats still have to prove the former. Not only have they not yet done so, but Schiff also continues to treat the first like fact, deeming Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee in the process.

"Did the president try to convince a foreign government to help him cheat in the next election?" Schiff asked at the commencement of the trial. In a vacuum, this is a dumb question because it's one Schiff was supposed to answer in the House. In practice, the question is a moronic one that confirms the conspiracy that House Democratic leadership wanted Biden in the general election from the start.

All of this only contributes to the populist perspective that regardless of the underlying facts, House Democrats poisoned what could have been a successful impeachment trial with politics from the start.