The Utah senator's vote marked the first time in U.S. history a senator voted to convict a president from his own party in an impeachment trial.

It turns out Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was right — President Trump said he did, in fact, learn some lessons from his impeachment.Trump was asked Wednesday if he had any takeaways from the experience now that he's been acquitted and he certainly did, though his answer was probably not quite what Collins had in mind when she said she believed the process would prove to be a teachable moment for the commander-in-chief. The president said, first and foremost, he learned congressional Democrats are "crooked" and "vicious," and that they should not have "brought impeachment." So, not much in the way of self-reflection.> Trump said the only lessons he learned from being impeached is that "the Democrats are crooked" and "vicious," adding "they shouldn't have brought impeachment." He goes on to whine about NBC and MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/pG652ebLIX> > — Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 12, 2020Additionally, he said he learned his poll numbers jumped up, which he attributed to what he baselessly called the "dishonest" reporting of news outlets like NBC.Trump has repeated these claims many times throughout and even before his tenure in the Oval Office, though, so it's worth wondering whether he really gained this perspective because of impeachment.More stories from theweek.com Barr sets March 31 congressional testimony amid Roger Stone controversy Brokered convention gets close 2nd place in FiveThirtyEight's Democratic nomination forecast The Democratic establishment is out of time

Recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New York's newspapers: You From New York? You’re First on Trump’s Revenge List

The New York Times

Feb. 6

Fresh from his impeachment acquittal by Senate Republicans, President Trump has shifted into payback mode.

In his combative State of the Union address ...

The trip comes soon after Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial that centered on his pressure campaign against Ukraine.

A trio of senators will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky on Friday, just a week after the Senate acquitted President Donald Trump on charges he abused his power by asking Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, a 2020 rival.

Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) will meet with Zelensky in Kyiv, the senators said on Wednesday afternoon.

“The U.S.-Ukraine relationship is as important now as ever. The future of Ukraine matters to the United States and we must make sure Ukraine knows that we view them as a strategic ally,” the senators said in a statement. “This is why we’re going to Kyiv as a bipartisan delegation to reinforce our support with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.”

The move shows an attempt to return to normalcy in the region after the impeachment inquiry upended U.S. relations with a key ally.

Johnson and Murphy traveled together to Ukraine last year to visit Zelensky, and despite their sharp differences over Trump's impeachment have been leading advocates for a bipartisan posture toward Ukraine. Trump was impeached for delaying aid to Ukraine and requesting Zelensky investigate the Bidens for corruption, an effort the House deemed an abuse of power.

In an interview, Murphy said the senators may discuss economic support and security aid.

“One way to make clear that Ukraine is not a political football is for a bipartisan group of senators on opposite sides of the impeachment vote to go see Zelenky and to convey support," Murphy said.

Still, he said he would express to Zelensky his discomfort with Rudy Giuliani, who has continued his efforts to attack the Bidens in Ukraine. Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son, served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company when Joe Biden was vice president, though there's no evidence of wrongdoing.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn't raise the danger of Giuliani’s continued overtures in Ukraine. So I'm sure that we will talk about the need to keep U.S.-Ukraine policy separated in the 2020 election. That’s obviously the issue I raised with him in September,” Murphy said of his conversation with Zelensky last year. “It goes without saying at this point, Zelensky knows which side of the line to stay on."

The president congratulated AG William Barr for "taking charge" of the case against Trump's longtime friend.

President Trump said Wednesday the lesson he learned from impeachment is that "the Democrats are crooked."

"They got a lot of crooked things going," Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

He said he also learned "that they're vicious, that they shouldn't have brought impeachment."

His comments came during ...

MOSCOW -- Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fired his chief of staff Tuesday in a personnel shake-up affecting central figures on the Ukrainian side of the events leading to the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.The shuffle in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, offered fresh evidence of how deeply entangled Ukrainian and American politics have become.The new chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, negotiated last summer with Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, as Giuliani and Trump pressured Ukraine to start investigations that would benefit Trump politically. Yermak, who at the time was a senior presidential adviser on foreign policy, has sought to maintain good ties with the Trump administration.The man he replaced, Andriy Bohdan, a former lawyer for oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, reportedly became chief of staff last year over Giuliani's objections. Giuliani was at odds with Kolomoisky at the time but later pivoted to working with Kolomoisky associates in his search for evidence against Trump's political enemies.Yet the shake-up appears to have more to do with Ukraine's internal workings -- specifically, a growing clash between Zelenskiy's administration and Kolomoisky, a billionaire with oil, television and real estate holdings who was implicated in a major banking scandal.Yermak's name popped up often in the House impeachment investigation. In talks and text message exchanges with him, Giuliani and U.S. diplomats sought an announcement of Ukrainian investigations, including one into former Vice President Joe Biden and his family, while withholding a White House visit and military assistance.Yermak later sought to smooth relations during the impeachment hearings. After Trump's ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, testified that he had told Yermak that military aid was "likely" linked to the announcement of investigations -- a key accusation in the Democrats' case -- Yermak told a journalist he didn't remember this part of the conversation. The comment bolstered Trump's defense."Yermak tries to present himself as a person who can negotiate with the Americans," Volodymyr Yermolenko, editor of Ukraine World magazine, said in a telephone interview, a stance that could help in his new role, he said, though Zelenskiy promoted him mostly for domestic reasons.Before running for office last year, Zelenskiy was a comedian starring in a television show on a station owned by Kolomoisky, and their relationship is seen as pivotal in Ukrainian politics. The president, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, has had to fend off allegations that he was a tool of the oligarch.Kolomoisky has annoyed officials in Zelenskiy's government by opposing a land reform measure and an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The IMF deal promises to deliver billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, though it harms Kolomoisky's business interests.His allies pushed back on social media, mocking supporters of the IMF deal and broad economic overhauls as "Sorosaty," a word derived from billionaire philanthropist George Soros' last name. In Ukrainian, it rhymes with piglet."Kolomoisky is a toxic figure in the West," Yermolenko said, and Zelenskiy seems to be inching toward easing his allies out of government.One sign of this conflict came into view this month, when agents of the domestic intelligence agency searched the office of a close ally of Kolomoisky, Oleksandr Dubinsky, in relation to a scandal involving electronic eavesdropping.Separately, Yermak and Bohdan, the Kolomoisky associate, were reportedly at odds over appointments to the Kyiv city administration. And some in the Zelenskiy team had grown dissatisfied with Bohdan's handling of reform legislation in Parliament, which has become bogged down, magazine Novoye Vremya reported.Though the reasons for sidelining Kolomoisky may be domestic, they could also resonate in American politics. Kolomoisky has been an on-again, off-again ally of Giuliani in his efforts in Ukraine.Last spring, they were at odds, and through an associate, Lev Parnas, Giuliani asked Zelenskiy to refrain from hiring Bohdan as chief of staff, according to Parnas' lawyer. Parnas later became a key figure in the impeachment inquiry.By December, Giuliani had swiveled to cooperating with the oligarch's allies in a continuing effort to gather information against Biden, who is running against Trump, and other Democrats.Among those whom Giuliani met on a trip to Kyiv for example, was Dubinsky, the Kolomoisky associate whose offices were later searched by the domestic intelligence agency. It was not clear whether that search and the firing of Bohdan indicated that those who had been aiding Giuliani were being pushed aside.On Monday, Attorney General William Barr said that the Justice Department would consider, but carefully vet, the information Giuliani was turning up in Ukraine and had established a channel for the president's lawyer to provide it to a U.S. attorney outside of Washington.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company