here from our nbc team, with the department of justice saying to republicans on the hill, hey, bring it on. the new letter to house oversight. and what it said about any possible cooperate on new congressional investigations. plus the white house going public against a private group who they are now labelling a transnational criminal organization, we ll talk about the sanctions imposed today. and i m hallie jackson and i want to bring in senior white house correspondent kelly o donnell joining us live from outside of the white house. i want to start with you here. and what we ve just heard now, from president biden, as he is casting his eye toward 2024, although with no formal announcement. at least toward the next two years of his presidency. while also having to manage the political footballs that he s got on his plate right now. to mix a metaphor and i m sorry about that. the white house has just released a clip of a conversation between the president and his vp. i want
group designate them as a transnational criminal organization. it means now sanctions, new sanctions on them and their support networks, et cetera, sometime next week. here is john kirby making that news at today s briefing. it comes days after the group s leader handed the first major victory in months even though there is a potential thorn in the kremlin s side trying to outshine russia s actual military. let me bring in reporter dan de loose. talk about why now and the significant of this group and our own matt bradley just did a deep dive on this a few days ago. it is an interesting design dynamic. and it doesn t say very much positive about how putin s conducting the war that he s had to turn to this group of contractors that recruiting convicts from prisons. so, yes, the white house could have done this earlier but because they ve become so prominent on the the battlefield