Will Republicans ever give up on Donald Trump?

That's the question floating around the House impeachment hearings, and it's essential to what happens next because without even if the House votes to impeach, without a conviction in the Republican-controlled Senate, these hearings will be just one more dark note on Trump's presidency—and not, as many Democrats hope, the end of it.

So far, Republicans in Congress have been lock-step behind the President, but the chatter may be shifting. During Gordon Sondland's damning testimony this morning, Ken Starr—yes, that Ken Starr—speculated that this could be the beginning for the end for President Trump. He called it "obviously one of those bombshell days" on Fox News.

In an interview shortly after Sondland's testimony began, Starr was asked, "You called yesterday's hearing 'extravagant and political.' You said, 'So far these hearings have not revealed a crime.' Did anything change in the last couple of hours?"

"Yes, because we've gotten closer to the President, but... the President may have covered himself, saying 'no quid pro quo.' The record is muddled. So we have Gordon Sondland's understanding. It doesn't look good for the President, substantively."

Starr, for those who have blocked out the '90s, headed the Whitewater investigation, which eventually led to Bill Clinton's impeachment. That, however, was not the impeachment hearing Starr compared the Ukraine investigation to: He compared it to Watergate.

This is a significant shift from just the day before, when Starr said that there was no evidence that Trump committed a crime. And he's not the only Republican who seems to be having a change of heart over this President: According to a report by Time Magazine, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been implicated by Sondland's testimony today, may be resigning soon, too. (This claim, however, has been denied by the State Department.)

Where it counts, however, is in Congress. Until Republicans come to see Trump as a liability rather than an asset, it's unlikely that the Senate will ever vote to convict and remove him from office.

“The real issue is the senators are watching,” Starr said. “Are senators going to now say ... ‘We need to make a trip down to the White House’? That's the historic example set during the Nixon presidency. From what I’ve been able to glean I don’t think that’s going to happen. But obviously what happens today could—has the potential to be a game-changer.”

Of course, the Republicans need Donald Trump. He's monopolized the party and the media's attention, and I doubt there's another Republican in America who stands a chance in the next general election. He is, somehow, the party's best chance to maintain power, and unless the voters turn on Trump, Mitch McConnell and his fellow senators will not give him up.

At this point, voters are nearly evenly divided on this impeachment. A recent NPR poll found 45 percent in favor, 44 percent against impeachment and removal from office. Another poll, this one by Politico, found that support for impeachment has ticked down slightly since proceedings started. Of course, that was before Sondland's testimony—which has not been good for the President—and history has shown us that people support the President until they don't: At the beginning of Watergate, fewer than 20 Americans supported removing Nixon from office. In August 1974, that number went up to nearly 60 percent. He resigned within the week.