I don't think the original plan was "insurance", rather that they were planning to destroy Trump to make sure no one ever tried the same thing again.
All they did was up the ante and piss the bear off even more.
Once they lost they had to try to fix the implementation, but that got short-circuited because the MSM had been taken out to a degree that they hadn't reckoned with.
It was too monolithic to adjust to the hit it took and now just appears to be out of touch and vindictive. Petty, even.
Now they all have to be destroyed, but it's of their own doing, IMO.