CNN WIRE -- Takeaways from the sentencing hearing of Donald Trump: VIDEO

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

50% : Trump concluded his speech by noting that the voters had put him back in office, even ticking off the fact that he won all seven swing states and the popular vote.
48% : The sentence essentially serves as a final judgment in the case procedurally, allowing Trump and his attorneys to move forward with his appeals.
47% : Todd Blanche, who was sitting beside Trump on Friday, has been tapped as deputy attorney general.
45% : If the lower appeals court upholds the jury's verdict, Trump then can ask the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, to consider his case.
43% : Judge Juan Merchan spoke to Trump for several minutes, telling the president-elect that it was the office of the presidency - and not the occupant - that was afforded extraordinary legal protections requiring him to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge without any punishment.
43% : But that didn't make Friday's sentencing any less significant or embarrassing for Trump, who was allowed to appear virtually from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
43% : Trump has been sentenced, but there will be appeals
41% : Steinglass noted that the probation officer who interviewed Trump for a probation report ahead of the sentencing wrote that Trump "sees himself as above the law.
41% : Although the hush money payments at issue were in 2016, before Trump was president, some of the evidence used against him stemmed from his time in office, particularly discussions with witness Hope Hicks.
40% : It's a judge that shouldn't have been on the case," Trump said from Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night.
38% : (CNN) -- Donald Trump was sentenced without penalty in the New York hush money case Friday after a symbolic - and historic and unprecedented - hearing following the first felony conviction of a former and soon-to-be sitting president.
37% : Merchan was not required to impose any prison time - and legal experts debated whether the low-level felonies Trump was convicted of would have warranted it - but the felonies came with a maximum four-year prison term, so the judge would have had that option.
35% : Merchan didn't tip his hand Friday when he spoke to Trump and imposed his sentence.
31% : Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, but that date was pushed back multiple times after the Supreme Court's decision granting sweeping presidential immunity.
25% : 'What ifs' linger over hearingHow the American public would have reacted or voted if Trump had been sentenced will always be a speculative question.
24% : Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
23% : Trump chose to speak before Merchan imposed his sentence, showing zero contrition and launching into the same attacks against the "political witch hunt" that he's been claiming since he was first indicted more than 20 months ago.
22% : ""Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct," Steinglass added, Trump "encouraged others to reject the jury verdict.
18% : "This has been a very terrible experience," Trump said at one point.
15% : While he has vowed to keep fighting the conviction through the appeals courts, Friday's sentencing cements the fact that Trump will be the first convicted felon to become president 10 days from now.Merchan already signaled he would not sentence Trump to any punishment, let alone jail time.
14% : Trump enters office as a felonThe unconditional discharge sentence cements the president-elect's status as a convicted felon, though Trump now walks freely away from the case without any threat of punishment, fines or probationary supervision.
9% : It may ultimately be lost to history to speculate about what Merchan would have done had Trump been sentenced in July - or if Friday's hearing came after Trump was a defeated presidential candidate.
6% : "Prosecutors concurred with Merchan's decision to sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge, but assistant district attorney Josh Steinglass accused Trump of harming the rule of law with his conduct before and after the May jury verdict.

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