Good morning. You're watching Belchie on MSNBC. It's Sunday, December 31st, and I'm Charles Coleman, Jr. sitting in for my friend and colleague, Ali Belchie.

Happy New Year's Eve. We made it. We begin this morning with the closing of a chapter.

2023 was a lot of things, but more than anything else, it was the year that a former U.S.

president was indicted on a host of federal criminal charges. We made it 234 years as a country

without a single president or former president facing criminal indictment.

And this year, 2023, Donald J. Trump broke that record. And not just once. He was charged

in four separate criminal cases this year. Trump and his 91 felony indictments are far and away

the biggest story of 2023.

And as the year draws to a close, it's worth considering the magnitude of each of these charges.

It's also worth reminding ourselves how big this story is, how big this moment is.

It's historic and how very not normal everything about Trump world has been.

Donald Trump's disregard for social norms, common courtesy, and the rule of law was shocking at first.

But like any relentless campaign, it can be exhausting to think about, to talk about, and to live through each and every

day, day after day, and year after year.

And so today, on this last day of the first year that a former president was criminally

indicted, I want to underscore just how imperative it is that we as a country, as an electorate, and as the model of democracy

that we aspire to be to the rest of the world truly understand this is a really big deal.

This is not some random guy who got arrested and loaded up with dozens of felonies.

It's the former president of the United States of America, the commander

and chief, the leader of the free world. He's also the current frontrunner for the Republican

nomination for president. And as he's doing that, he's raising money and whipping up dangerous

outrage based on false claims over attempts to hold him accountable.

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