The vote came after the president’s intelligence chiefs publicly contradicted his assessment of national security threats. These events reflect both the unusual nature of the Trump administration and longer-term trends in the politics of national security. The national security oversight process is broken — but that started long before Trump. The Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees have held markedly fewer hearings over time. Republicans like McConnell might be more hawkish on national security than Trump, but have acquiesced to the president on other policies.

Source: Washington Post February 02, 2019 12:01 UTC