0 tomorrow night at this hour nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel will host a special report on assignment, ukraine's secret resistance. after spending time with ukrainians who joined a secret resistance effort. that's tomorrow at 10 pm eastern here on msnbc and streaming on peacock. peacock is tonight's last word. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight. bombshell testimony from a murder suspect. taking the stand in his own defense, telling the jury he lied and stole, but he didn't kill his wife and son. will they buy? it then the tucker tapes. congressman jamie raskin is here to respond to speaker mccarthy's move to put forward the thousand hours of january 6th footage into the hands of one fox news host. and disgraced crypto king sam bankman-fried with four new criminal charges, some related to political donations. as the 11th hour gets underway on this thursday night. >> good evening once again. i'm stephanie ruhle. we begin this evening with more moving testimony from a defendant and a double murder case making national headlines. alex murdaugh, the former well to do south carolina lawyer accused of killing his wife and son took to stand in his own defense today. he insisted that he was innocent but he also admitted to lying to investigators. during testimony, murdaugh broke down several times including when his attorney asked him to describe the murder scene. >> i think i jumped out of my car. i'm not exactly sure what i did but i got out of my car. i know iran back to my car, called 9-1-1. who went back and forth between them. it was so bad. at some point, i mean i know it tried to check them for a pulse. i'm -- i know i tried to turn him over. my boy was laying face down and he's done the way he's done. >> nbc's catie beck was at the courthouse today and has more. >> after nearly five weeks of testimony, a stunning surprise. >> i am going to testify, i want to testify. >> the trial's most anticipated witness takes the stand. alex murdaugh testifies in his own defense. the first questions aimed at the heart of the case. >> does this gun or any gun like it and blow your son's brains out on june 7th or any day or anytime? >> no, i did not. >> did you take the such as this and fire it into your wife maggie's leg, torso, or any part of her body? >> no, i did not. >> quick to confront what is perhaps the prosecution's strongest evidence. the video taken by paul murdoch at the dog candles, placing alec at the crime scene minutes before the murders. he told investigators he wasn't there, but admits now he was lying. >> alec, why did you lie? >> it's as my addiction evolved over time, i would get in these situations, the circumstances where i would get paranoid. >> murdaugh said he did not trust law enforcers and regrets the law that led to many others. >> you continued lying after that night. >> once allied, i continue to lie, yes sir. >> emotional and crying throughout, murdoch's testimony largely writes his timeline on the night of the murders. showering and changing clothes before dinner, and describing the moment he discovered the bodies. again saying he checked for signs of life. >> i know i tried to turn him over. >> when you say you tried to turn him over, why were you trying to turn him over? >> i don't know. i don't know. i don't know why i try to turn him over. my boys laying face down. >> later in testimony, alec and it's a long time addiction to opioids. that is still client funds but denies being overly concerned about being caught prior to the murders. >> what kind of cases did you normally do? >> on cross examination, prosecutors began by pressing murdaugh on the fraud cases where he admits he stole money from his clients and lied to them. and prosecutors suggesting all of these money wasn't going to fund his pill addiction. >> you were generating millions of dollars in fees. that was not enough for you. would you concede that? >> if by concede that what you mean was i also stealing money that i shouldn't have, yes sir, i agree with that. i've said that repeatedly. >> murdaugh is expected to be back on the stand tomorrow. he's pleaded not guilty, facing 30 years to life in prison without parole if convicted. with that, let's get smarter with our lead off panel this evening. charles coleman is your, civil rights attorney and former new york prosecutor. avery wilkes, chief investigative reporter for the post carrier, and columbia, south carolina and like douglas, reporter for the hilton head packet also in south carolina. avery, against his lawyers own advice, alex murdaugh took the stand all day long. why? >> there are certain things in this case that no one can explain but alex murdaugh. there are outstanding questions and theories and suspicions that have been raised by prosecutors over the last four weeks. they have presented witnesses who have talked about suspicious behavior or things that murdaugh did do in the hours and days and weeks after the slayings, or things that he didn't do during that time that he thought were odd and thought potentially might mean that he was the actual killer. this is a last ditch effort for the defense and for murdaugh himself to try to explain those things. things like why did you lie to investigators repeatedly about where you were that evening and about the fact that you saw mcgahn paul? -- also questions like why did you go out the main drag, instead of going by the drive way and drive by meghan paul? there are really small, unanswered questions that i guess murdaugh felt he needed to address and order to have a chance at mistrial or an outright acquittal in this case. >> charles, if you look at headlines throughout today, was he blew himself, up as a disaster, horrible move. however, murdaugh only needs to convince one single juror >> that's right. >> that maybe he didn't do it, and this didn't harm it. >> absolutely, and i think it's important for my viewers to be mindful of it. he doesn't need a unanimous verdict from the entire pool. only needs is one. >> this is a small town where he's from a powerful family. >> a lot of things that lock people forgotten about. this name in this town carries a lot of weight. and there could be someone who is enamored by the prestige unrwa reputation in the privilege in the power that his family has, in such a way that it causes a whole doubt. not just that, but stephanie there are so many bizarre pieces about this entire situation. and while many of us are looking at for example, the documentary, the boat case, the other things that are so seated with his family and its name, people have to understand that the jury is not necessarily going to be looking at all of that. so as you said, all they need is one. just one hold out. we end up with the hung jury, he walks away. now this is hardly going to be the end of his legal troubles as he has a number of other things it he has to deal with. but as far as this criminal case, it very well could happen. >> as far as life in prison with no parole, blake, he did decide to take the stand. so what is the defenses strategy? was there a question like? >> like charles said, a lot of their questioning has focused on painting alex murdaugh as a loving father, a loving husband who could not have possibly done this to his wife and son. as charles again said, alex murdaugh comes from a very influential family who has very deep roots in this area and again, he only needs to convince at least one juror through a motion, through the for lack of a better were to the show that he puts on the stand, no he could not have gone to the candles and really slain his wife and son. so lot of the defense questioning rests on that. it rests on him admitting that yes i've done wrong in my life, i've done bad things, but i could not have done this to my own family. >> but not even bad things historically charles. he was forced to admit he was lying at the scene to investigators. >> throughout the investigation. and if there's anything i was disappointed that in the cross examination of the prosecutor by the prosecutor, expect to probably get to it tomorrow, but i would've seized upon out immediately. there was a lot of conversation about the badges he had and basically trying to assume this persona, or trying to assume the protection of law enforcement. i understand that that was a strategy, but when he got on the stand today dropped that bombshell at the beginning of his testimony to basically say, since 2021 i'd be lying to investigators. i as a former prosecutor would have seized on that immediately. it would be like a dog with a bone, i would've not have let that go. primarily because at that point you have him tongue tied in front of the jury. because a simple question, if you are lying then we want people to believe you, now you're saying you're telling the truth, how do we know that what you are saying now can be trusted? that's a very difficult question for him to the answer, and one that most prosecutors will put in front of him in a way that immediately take that away from the jury in terms of damaging his credibility. which is really the only thing he has to stand on to try to make a case. >> but then again, a good enough apology can pull on heartstrings. let's watch this. >> i'm sorry to my son buster. i'm sorry to grandma. -- i'm sorry to both of our families. most of all, i'm sorry to max and -- i would never intentionally do anything to her either one of them ever. ever. >> so sorry to mags, poppa, mama t, not talking about the fact that he had been stealing millions and millions of dollars, do you think people are gonna buy that? >> as i watched it live, and as i watched it now, i said to myself, are you sorry to the people you ripped off to the tune of millions? i couldn't ask but help myself that, that is going to be the question in the minds for the jurors to really think about, in terms of whether they believe the sky. his son did not do him any favors because unlike the testimony you saw there, his son was extremely stop at almost to detach throughout this entire testimony. he needed to make a strong rally to try to connect with that jury and that's what you see him do. again, at the end of the day the question becomes is there one? >> avery, the prosecution does not want you to see some sympathetic's good old southern boy. they want to paint a picture of a cold blooded killer, an addict and a thief. what's their strategy being throughout? >> well, i think even before this cross-examination, the prosecution was laying the groundwork for you know, destroying murdaugh's credibility. throughout this trial, they've been prepping the jury to not look at murdaugh and a favorable or sympathetic light. they've been explaining over and over again the financial crimes, the type of victims that he stole from. people who were very vulnerable, people who are very trusting who wouldn't question him. people who suffered a grievous injuries and lost loved ones. they talked to the jury about how murdaugh was really good at reading people and feeding off their a motion. he can make anybody feel special and you know the like they were the only person in the room. so prosecutors even before all this have laid the groundwork to the jury that this guy is a master manipulator. you can't believe a word he says. and it tears you might see our crocodile tears and they have tried even before we get to the stage, limit the impact of that emotional appeal. and as you mentioned, they didn't get that for muster. buster did help the defense in a number of ways in terms of explaining things, explaining some of those behaviors and countering some of the testimony from other witnesses. if there was going to be an emotional appeal in this case, it's probably enough to come from alec and self. >> we actually have some of that video from the cross-examination earlier today. watch this. >> do you have any independent recollection in time where you sat down and looked up person in the eye and you were lying to them and convincing them that everything is okay why is told their money? to remember even one time? >> i'm sure i do. >> i remember stealing from people, i remember lying to people, i'll number misleading people. >> this man was born wealthy from a powerful family and he himself was a powerful attorney. what's the back story on the allegations of financial fraud? >> as the prosecution ihas painted, this goes back years. despite his being born into a wealthy family, despite his success as an attorney, that is one of the key sticking points from the prosecution, painting him in that bad light. this man is wealthy, this man owns 1700 acre property and several others besides, and he is still using his position of trust, he is still using his personal skills with his own clients to take that money. he said on the stand, i don't exactly remember when or why i started doing this but at some point i did. that i would think is going to be an important question for the prosecution. trying to get out of the character of alex murdaugh, to get the point where why did you do this, when you have all of this wealth, we have this founded prestige and this money that was already there? >> my goodness, gentlemen i know we will we'll all be doing to tomorrow. watching day two of murdaugh in the south. thank you all for joining. us when we come back, congressman jamie raskin is here on kevin mccarthy handing over thousands and thousands of hours of january six video to one single fox news host. we're gonna break down what to the wrong news flash, it's a lot. and later, we've heard plenty from republicans about social security since the state of the union, from hellcats, to tucked cuts in the table, but there is a plan out there to keep it alive and to keep it that way. we're gonna discuss on the other side of the break. 11th hour just getting underway on a thursday night.