CNN: Rep. Adam Schiff discusses President Trump's first major speech abroad in Saudi Arabia with in an exclusive interview with Jake Tapper on 'State of the Union.'
REP. ADAM SCHIFF: I was also struck by the suggestion, and I think this is a broader element of the administration's policy, that they're going to de-emphasize issues of human rights, that what countries do within their own boundaries, we're essentially going to look the other way. That's not a high priority of ours anymore.
The promotion of democracy, the promotion of human rights, is going to take a back seat. I think that would be a terrible abdication of our global leadership when it comes to advocating for people who are the subject of persecution, or imprisoned, or journalists that are thrown in jail, or people not allowed to practice their faith. I think it would be a historic mistake for us to walk away from that.
And it was summed up I think most poignantly to me when Angela Merkel came to see the president, when one of the headlines read, "The leader of the free world meets Donald Trump." That's not what we expect of our president, and that needs to be -- human rights need to be nonetheless a top priority for the United States.
