Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., said President Trump's controversial travel ban is proof that his top strategist, Steve Bannon, is actually at the helm in the Oval Office.

"Maybe I give him too much credit; maybe it's actually President Bannon," he said during a Wednesday news conference organized to show opposition to the executive order. "Quite frankly, I think this is all about Bannon more than it is about Trump," the House Democratic Caucus chairman said about the former Breitbart chairman.

Noting that Bannon is also an Irish-Catholic, Crowley said: "I'm not happy about that. I'm ashamed about that."

He said that even after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, neither Trump, nor the George W. Bush administration, nor anyone else, were calling for travel bans or halting accepting refugees.

"Never once after that attack did Donald Trump ever show leadership on any account," Crowley said. "He didn't call for a ban back then. He was nowhere to be found because he was too busy lining his pockets after that attack," he claimed about the real estate mogul.