While what Susan Glasser says below is accurate, I think it’s a bit premature and doesn’t even begin to tell the whole story.

From the start of the inquiry into his scheme to pressure Ukraine to launch investigations for his personal political benefit, the President has defined winning as making sure that impeachment remained an entirely partisan issue, with Democrats pushing it and Republicans standing with him to oppose it. By that standard, he was winning before the hearings—and he is still winning after them. If anything, his political hand is now even stronger as Republicans, presented with incontrovertible facts, have chosen not to accept them—and to become even more vociferous in Trump’s defense.

On one obvious level, the decision to impeach the president reflects a genuine and principled desire to remove him from office. But removal has always been a choice that lies with the Republicans in the Senate. And, in any case, it’s a process that must proceed in steps, beginning with convincing the Democratic caucus in the House to begin the process at all. The Ukraine matter finally provided a crime so plain and simple, and so egregious, that all but a handful of Democratic congresspeople supported launching the inquiry, and there’s a possibility that the vote to impeach him will be unanimous. If it’s not, it should be easy to identify the motives of the holdouts. Tulsi Gabbard is a troll, and Collin Peterson represents a very red district in the Iron Range of Minnesota.

The Democrats have done an adequate job of gathering the evidence to prove their case against the president. But they’re not done yet. The case will move to the Judiciary Committee and there will be more hearings. It remains to be seen if the Intelligence Committee will continue to conduct their investigation and interview new fact witnesses, but we’ll definitely get more of the story as well as testimony from historians and legal scholars who will explain the impeachment process to the American people.

Whether or not any of this convinces some Republicans to vote to impeach or remove the president, the president will be impeached and stand trial. That’s at least a permanent scar on his record that is at least as much of a precedent as an eventual acquittal will be a kind of vindication and precedent.

In the end, the conduct could not stand. And if the Republicans want to overlook or excuse it, then it should be as painful for them as possible. If the American people see them giving Trump a pass on this, they’ll be able to go to the ballot box and register their displeasure. I think the likely result will be familiar. Trump will have done something bad and someone else will lose their job or go to jail for it. Maybe that’s the best we can do. But, if it is, it’s certainly not our fault. It’s not for lack of courage or lack of trying.

And, again, it’s still early in this process. All the facts have not come out. The true extent of the Republicans’ pain is not yet on display. Ultimately, it’s the GOP’s grave, and if they want to do all the digging, that’s on them. In this context, I don’t know that it makes a lot of sense to say that they, or Trump, is winning.