At the heart of the problem is a lack of clarity regarding who has been truly calling the shots, McCain elaborated later — Flynn prior to his resignation? Or Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist who was granted a seat on the elite National Security Council Principals Committee? Perhaps Stephen Miller, the senior policy adviser who was the face of the administration in a slew of news appearances Sunday? Or someone else?
“We don’t know who’s in charge. We don’t know who’s making the decisions,” McCain said. “…Every administration I’ve dealt with, going back to [President] Reagan, they have a process with national security decision-making, and we know who’s in charge. … Right now we don’t know who it is.”
The sustained chaos in the administration, now with nearly one month under its belt, has not unnerved all Republican lawmakers: Sen. Tom Cotton chuckled, literally, at the notion of a dysfunctional national security organization.
“Every administration has to find its sea legs,” said Cotton, who sits on the intelligence and armed services committees.
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