Seven long days of public hearings, 12 witnesses

Despite their different roles, all, in varying degrees, confirmed that the White House pressured incoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into U.S. President Trump's political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

But the central question in the inquiry was this:  Was there a "quid pro quo" in the form of withholding an important White House visit and later nearly $400 million of military aid to Ukraine?

The U.S. Ambassador the European Union, Gordon Sondland, said "yes,”while being questioned by the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)

Some witnesses said they were unaware the White House was trying to hijack U.S. Ukraine policy in a bid to pressure Kyiv to dig up dirt on Trump’s political rival. But, all agreed that there was a two-track foreign policy—an unofficial one pushed by the U.S. president’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, the official one running through the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.

“But it struck me when yesterday that when you put up on the screen Ambassador Sondland's emails and who was on these emails – and he said ‘these are the people who need to know’ – that he was absolutely right. Because he was being involved in a domestic political errand. And we were being involved in national security/foreign policy,” Former Russia Adviser to Trump, Fiona Hill said.

Many analysts expect Democrats to formally accuse the president of abuse of power, bribery, and seeking foreign interference in a U.S. election from a strategically-important ally locked in a conflict with a longstanding adversary, Russia.

But Republicans in the hearings stuck by their president, using a variety of arguments, not all based on fact. They, essentially, dismissed the impeachment inquiry as just another attempt to overturn the 2016 election. Some even called it a “coup.”

“What you've seen in this room over the past two weeks is a show trial. The planned result of three years of political operations and dirty tricks... And like any good show trial, the verdict was decided before the trial ever began,” Devin Nunes, congressman of California, top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said.

This impeachment inquiry is happening in a highly polarized political environment where no matter what witnesses said under oath, both political parties will try to spin it to their advantage—the Republicans even using debunked conspiracy theories to do it.

And even though these last two weeks have seen compelling testimony that, in more normal political times, could spell the end of a presidency - not one of Trump’s political allies have deserted him. In fact, if anything, they have become more vocal in their defense of a president they once held at arm’s length. And, as this impeachment process moves forward, those are the political realities no matter the facts.