Excerpts - New York Times News Analysis: The Vote Is Over. Let the Contest Begin.

Excerpts from February 5, 2020, NYT: The Vote Is Over. Let the Contest Begin:

"The vote today will open the floodgate for Trump to go after those who have wronged him in this process," said Jack O'Donnell, a former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., who has broken with Mr. Trump. "The so-called hate list which he carries around will be expanded, and efforts to hurt those on the list will begin. He will have no fear, not that he ever had much when going after his enemies."

Conciliation and acknowledging mistakes are not in his nature. Gwenda Blair, a biographer of the Trump family, pointed to the president's mentor, Roy Cohn. "Never say you're wrong, always claim victory, get in people's face, repeat; if they accuse you of something, throw it back at them, double down, triple down," she said. "He's taken Roy Cohn's mantra of total and complete belligerence and aggression not just to the next level but several levels past that."

While Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said this week that she believed Mr. Trump had learned from the experiences that had prompted his impeachment and would recalibrate his actions in office accordingly, some who have studied him said that would not be in keeping with the president's history.

"I doubt he will be chastened by the impeachment or the trial," said Shirley Anne Warshaw, a presidential scholar at Gettysburg College. "In fact, he will probably feel, unlike Susan Collins suggests, that he has open season now to do anything he wants because no one will rein him in for the next eight months."