Which of the following is true?

I'm not sure your second choice makes any sense.

Any Democrat who won could stop any investigation that would damage the party. He was the best option they had because they had terrible alternative options. They don't even really like him but they will take the "W" if they can get it.

If they thought they could win with another candidate they would have selected that person. They wanted to pretty badly. If they thought Joe would go down and not hurt the party while that happened, again they would have selected someone else and let him drown.

The later. Biden automatically gets a pass (criminally) bc he can say his interactions were of national security ALL they really risk is shorterm embarrassment and losing an election they were already gonna lose.

At the time of the impeachment, I thought it was political grandstanding. Looking back on it, what Trump was accused of doing, and the evidence presented were both so lame, I wondered why they bothered. Surely they wouldn't go to such lengths to protect Ol' Joe, right? Now I believe they did, but only because Joe is just the tip of the iceberg. She many signs, like Hillary's, "We'll all hang from nooses" comment on election night.

I also think that right after the impeachment hearing, there was talk about Biden dropping out after he underperformed in the first few primaries and Sanders was on a roll. Then, suddenly, the DNC machine got behind him and manhandled him into the frontrunner position. Buttigieg, O'Rourke, Harris, and others supported Biden over Sanders, even though they were more ideologically aligned with Sanders. Something wasn't right.

Fair enough. I suppose if you allow for other guilty officials who think Biden is a firewall protecting them by his mere candidacy, that could be a workable logical theory.

I've had a few beers and been playing Risk! tonight so I'm spent trying to work the holes in the theory.

Your scenarios being all BS or not is fun to think it out.

Additionally, people tend to forget Pelosi’s family, Romney’s family, and John Kerry’s family are tied up in this as well. I don’t believe for one minute Obama wasn’t getting kick backs as well. They were pushing hard for impeachment because they’re all tied into it. Biden is the, if I go down we all go down candidate.

Whatever the dems advise someone of, they have already done.

Clinton's worked with the Russians. Abuse Trump of colluding with Russia.

Various dems quid pro Joe with Ukraine.
Impeach Trump for same.

Time and time again. Answer is the first one.