The Note: Campaign back in split-screen, as Biden plays big on both

The TAKE with Rick Klein

Political attention is divided these days and will remain so, particularly as uncertainty about witnesses leaves the possibility of the Senate impeachment trial spilling into voting season.

Somehow, though, the national Democratic front-runner is playing big in both Iowa and Washington, D.C.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the focus of awkward attention in President Donald Trump's defense. That's likely to continue as senators mull witness options and ask impeachment questions, with Republican senators professing curiosity about Burisma, and perhaps hearing from Hunter Biden and the former vice president himself.

But uninvited scrutiny doesn't make it totally unwanted -- or necessarily negative. With Biden free to campaign in Iowa while his senator-rivals are sidelined, Biden is not avoiding the topic of impeachment.

"The whole impeachment trial for Trump is just a political hit job to try to smear me," Biden said in Muscatine, Iowa, on Tuesday. "He is scared to death to run against me and he has good reason to be concerned."

This is expectations-setting season, and on that Biden is … Biden.

"I'm still here," he told The New York Times Magazine's Mark Leibovich. "And I'm still winning."

The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks

Five days before the Iowa caucuses, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren want their supporters to know they are looking past the early voting state.

In a press release on Tuesday evening, Sanders' team announced their first television ads to air in Super Tuesday states: California and Texas. His campaign said they were expanding their staff into Texas too.

Last week, Warren's team also sent out a memo outlining her national strategy and boasted of her staff coast to coast.

The announcements are a subtle way to play the expectations game and signal to both their followers and their competitors that they are in this race for the long haul, despite what happens in the first few contests. They are making an argument that Iowa is not make or break for them, while also scrambling to keep up with former Mayor Mike Bloomberg -- who has skipped ahead and focused on those delegate-rich Super Tuesday states.

This campaign still hasn’t featured an ad where a Democratic candidate calls out another one by name. New ads attacking Sanders – one from a group funded by a longtime Democratic strategist, and another from the conservative group Club for Growth -- could mark a turning point, amid a growing realization that Sanders has a path to the nomination.

While it's true that others have more on the line next week, namely former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who staked much of their pitches on their Midwest appeal. Poor performances in the early states could still make messaging to a larger audience hard, even for these two front-runners.

The TIP with Lissette Rodriguez and Samantha Sergi

Sen. Amy Klobuchar traveled over 1,000 miles (one way) to Council Bluffs, Iowa for a campaign event where she spoke for 42 minutes before heading back to Washington, D.C. for the Senate impeachment trial. With less than a week left before the Iowa caucuses and four hours to throw together an event, Klobuchar’s organizers packed around 160 people into the side room of Barley’s Bar.

Klobuchar delivered not only her stump speech, but also an update on the impeachment trial which delighted the crowd: “Sen. McConnell announced that he didn't think he had the votes or wasn't sure if he had the votes to stop witnesses.” Before flying another 1,000 miles to sit silently as a juror, the Minnesota senator asked the crowd to carry the ‘Klo-mentum’ torch, “I'm doing my job. Now, go do yours.”

Klobuchar's Tuesday night event was a first for the Democratic senators who are running for president. Klobuchar is leading her Senate opponents in efforts from afar. While Warren hosted her first statewide tele-town hall Tuesday night, Klobuchar already had three under her belt, and the campaign said each one netted between 11,000-12,500 dial-ins.

The Minnesota senator's campaign has also announced an ambitious weekend schedule throughout Iowa, but noted -- as their press releases have for weeks now -- that all events are "subject to change based on U.S. Senate schedule." Meaning, the unpredictable impeachment trial will continue to keep the senators running their campaigns on standby.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News' "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl talk about the Senate impeachment trial and preview the Iowa caucuses. https://bit.ly/2w091jE

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

• President Donald Trump participates in a signing ceremony for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement at 11 a.m.
• Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg will hold a town hall in Jefferson, Iowa, at 9:45 a.m. (CST), a town hall in Ames, Iowa, at 11:30 a.m., a town hall in Webster, Iowa, at 1:30 p.m., a town hall in Mason, Iowa, at 4:45 p.m. and a town hall in New Hampton, Iowa, at 7 p.m.
• Tom Steyer will continue his bus tour with a town hall in Knoxville, Iowa, at 10 a.m. (CST), a town hall in Ottumwa, Iowa, at 12:30 p.m. and a town hall in Fairfield, Iowa, at 6 p.m.
• The Senate impeachment trial will resume at 1 p.m.
• Andrew Yang holds a town hall in Iowa City, Iowa, at noon (CST), a town hall in Burlington, Iowa, at 3 p.m., a town hall in Davenport, Iowa, at 6 p.m. and a town hall in Clinton, Iowa, at 7:30 p.m.
• Former Vice President Joe Biden will continue his bus tour with a community event in Sioux City, Iowa, at 1:15 (CST) and a community event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at 5:15 p.m.
• Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will speak at the National Newspapers Publishers Association's Future of Black America Symposium in Houston at 2:30 (CST), he will then launch "Ganamos con Mike" and hold an organizing event in El Paso, Texas, at 7 p.m.
• Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, holds a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at 6 p.m.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will host a panel on climate change with politicians, experts and activists in Washington at 6 p.m.

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