that he is the ranking member of the january 6th committee. he is not on the committee. how could he think he could send a letter like this and put his name on it and say he s something that he isn t. what happened? reporter: house hearings are known for strange moments but this was truly remarkable. representative cheney entered into the record at least one letter from banks claiming that he was a ranking member of the house select committee. and in these letters he is asking for them to share information with him. in one letter provided to cnn, he sent to the department of interior on september 16th, he asked them to provide him with any information that they were also sending the committee. a truly remarkable and unusual moment in a largely unusual day. amazing. i guess he wants it and wants to know what they have. but to think you re not going to be busted for that and it s an outright lie and a misrepresentation, it s stunning. well, thanks very much, paula. i appreciate it. p
loose. but it was just a spontaneous thing that bannon knew absolutely nothing about? no. well, all but nine republicans want to look the other way and not hear more from steve bannon. paula reid is outfront live from capitol hill. doj now has the bannon referral from the house. obviously this passed overwhelmingly with those nine republican votes in addition to democrats. so what happens now? reporter: all eyes, erin, are on the attorney general. today s vote to hold bannon in contempt gave speaker pelosi the power to refer bannon for prosecution, and that referral will go to the u.s. attorney in the district of columbia but the big decision on whether to prosecute ultimately lies with attorney general merrick garland. coincidentally he was here on the hill for a routine oversight hearing. he was asked about this referral and he wouldn t tip his hand about how exactly he intends to handle this. he just said that the justice department will handle this as it handles everything else,
i m wolf blitzer in the situation room. you can always follow me on twitter and inst instagram @wolfblitzer. tweet the show @cnn sitroom and it s also available as a podcast. look for us on cnn.com/audio or wherever you get your podcasts. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, the breaking news. the fbi announces moments ago that the human remains found in a florida nature reserve are those of brian laundrie. plus the full house of representatives votes to hold steve bannon in contempt. now all eyes are on the attorney general. will merrick garland prosecute bannon? and president joe biden about to face voters in cnn s town hall. anderson cooper is getting ready for that up to hall right now and will join me next. let s go outfront. good evening, i m erin burnett. we are less than one hour away from cnn s town hall with
i m wolf blitzer in the situation room. you can always follow me on twitter and instagram @wolf blitzer. tweet the show at cnn sit room. the situation room is also available as a podcast. look for us on cnn.com/audio or wherever you get your podcasts. erin burnett outfront starts right now. outfront next, scrambling. president biden trying to head off multiple economic crises but are his solutions way too little, too late? plus, breaking news. the white house formally rejects trump s request to keep documents from the january-6th investigation as the committee subpoenas a former-trump doj official and is set to clash with steve bannon. and dr. sanjay gupta talks to a controversial podcast host, joe rogan, about rogan s bout with covid, the treatments he tried and why he says he hasn t gotten vaccinated, yet. you will a hear it. let s go outfront. and good evening, i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, president
and stephanie grisham, a trump insider, selling books by warning of a 2024 trump run that she is, quote, terrified about. but is her book tour all about her own image? let s go outfront. and good evening, i m erin burnett. out front tonight, facebook s disaster. just hours before a whistle-blower is set to testify before congress against the tech giant about its quest for profit over public safety, facebook s site is coming back online. after it was done almost six hours today. and the other sites facebook owns, instagram and whatsapp, also, offline. it s one of the longest outages for facebook which has 3 billion users. it impacted the planet. massive outage comes as we are learning damning new claims of the internet giant putting profit above all else. the thing i saw facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public, and what was good for facebook. and facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its