washington. glad to have you. here right now in south carolina, there are major developments in alex murdaugh s double murder trial. the prosecution now respond ing after the defense presented its closing arguments yesterday. defense attorney jim griffin made an emotional plea when wrapping up his presentation. there are two words that justice demands this thises case and those two words are not guilty. the oath you have taken in this case it requires a verdict not dwlt. on behalf of alex, of buster, on behalf of maggie and on behalf of my friend paul, i respectfully request that you do not compound a family tragedy with another thank you. just before closing arguments began, the judge remove d a jurr for discussing the case outside of the trial. diane gallagher is outside of the court in south carolina. diane, what more did the defense say today as they were presenting to the jury in these final hours of this trial? reporter: jim griffin spoke for about 2 hours and 15
reporter: the federal reserve just made history announcing that they re raising interest rates by 3/4 of a percentage point for the second meeting in a row. we haven t seen anything like that in back to back meetings in modern fed history, but we re not in nor times. we re dealing with the worst inflation inflation prices in 40 years. inflation remains elevated due in part to russia s invasion of ukraine and very high food and energy prices. so the fed is stepping in and acting like the firefighter. they re trying to put this inflation fire out. the goal here is to raise borrowing costs and try to cool off red hot demand, and that should hopefully allow supply a chance to catch up. but you know, officials also signaled that they re not nearly done with rate hikes. they said it would, quote, will be appropriate to continue raising interest rates. and here s the problem. they re raising rates into an economy that is already showing cracks here. in the new statement today, the
Between russia and the united states in the year plus a few days since the invasion happened. there was only one phone call. the last time they met in person, blinken confronted him with the evidence that an invasion was about to happen, ask he continued his denial that russia was going to invade. we believe that he wasn t told about the invasion until just hours before it happened. so there s an interesting question about whether he s the right person to be talking to. since you can t have president biden talking to putin these days, this is the only real channel left. and trying to get paul whelan out, but also communicating directly with the russians a about the long-term danger of their suspension of involvement
We will have an engagement with them this week. i won t say more about it because we are trying to keep that in sensitive channels, but that is the timetable. we have had regular engagement of course along the way. if u.s. officials are going to put a firm offer on the table, in that meeting later this week with russian officials or if they are going to start floating ideas to get paul whelan out, but we did hear from the special envoy roger carson who said that the united states still has cards to play. we are just watching to see which car they put forward and which car the russians agreed to. appreciate. it more perspective now from prostate presidential envoy roger karsten. roger a pre-show you being with us. when i ask you now about this amazing moment on the tarmac that you took part in when the actual exchange took place. this is something that we have seen in cold worse by movies, and john locke hurray novels, what was it like in that moment? anderson, thanks for havi
Marina butina confirm, quote, it was our choice to exchange whelan. even though the whelan family says it s absolutely good that brittney griner has been freed. in his fake outrage, the former president went so far as to say that whelan, quote, would have been let out for the asking, and quote. now, if that were true. if we just ask you get paul whelan out, why didn t donald trump do that in 2018? or in 2019? or in 2020, while he was actually still the president of the united states? are there any republicans who are so ostensibly angry that putin seems to have gotten one over on america sorry that they put their arms around one of putin s operatives? joining us now, michael mcfaul, served as the u.s. ambassador of the states to russia in 2014. he is an msnbc international affairs contributor. it s good to see you. tonight one, we re so grateful and happy that britney griner