“They made the direct connection to the president, which was necessary,” Lynch added.

But even as Democrats felt that they had made an ironclad case that Trump had abused the power of his office by pressuring a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election, they were no closer to persuading even a single House Republican to join them in voting to impeach the president.

It was a reminder of the limits of political persuasion at a time when the country is deeply polarized and any sign of disloyalty to Trump means excommunication from the GOP.

The public hearings were initially conceived as a way to bring weeks of closed-door testimony into Americans’ living rooms, and convince voters that Trump’s impeachment is warranted. Democrats hope they did that, of course, but they also ended up drawing out new evidence that they never expected to obtain — much of which quickly became central to their argument.

No one in Congress had heard of David Holmes, the U.S. Embassy official in Kyiv who provided brand new, first-hand evidence that Trump was seeking a commitment from Ukraine to investigate his political rivals. Holmes’ recollections were first relayed by William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine and the first witness to testify last week. Holmes was quickly deposed just two days later and on Thursday, he testified publicly.

When the hearings began, lawmakers had no idea that Pentagon official Laura Cooper would bring with her two emails suggesting that Ukraine had concerns that military aid had been stalled as early as July 25, undercutting GOP claims that they caught no hint of a problem until late August and so there would have been nothing of value for Trump to dangle.

When the hearings began, no one knew Trump would take a personal shot at Marie Yovanovitch — the former ambassador to Ukraine whom he removed in May amid a smear campaign led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani — precisely while she was testifying about her experience. Democrats immediately accused him of witness intimidation.

And when the hearings began, no one expected that Gordon Sondland, Trump’s top envoy to the European Union, who donated $1 million to his inauguration, to identify a busload of senior administration officials who he said were aware of efforts to spur an investigation Trump was seeking.

In each case, the unexpected appeared to break in Democrats’ favor, providing more ammunition to support allegations that Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals and withheld a White House meeting — and possibly a $400 million military aid package — from Ukraine’s new president as leverage.

“Every argument that was put forth by my colleagues on the other side has been debunked,” said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a House Intelligence Committee member.