I suspect what we're witnessing is the controlled demolition of the Iowa Caucus. The DNC probably wasn't happy in 2008 when Iowa picked Obama over Hillary, but at least they could work with that result. In 2016, the only reason the state didn't go to Bernie is because of DNC rigging and coin tosses. Internal polling probably showed another Bernie win in 2020. At that point, a strategic long-term decision was probably made to get the DNC out of Iowa entirely. Sabotage the election, push the narrative that Iowa is "too white" to be the first state anyways, and then use this all as an excuse to move the 2024 first vote to a state more in line with DNC interests.

It doesn't explain why they let Mayor Cheat become collateral damage, although that could be explained away as general DNC hubris.