Washington, D.C. – Earlier today at the American Enterprise Institute, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) talked about President Obama’s final State of the Union Address, and his policies that have made the world less safe.  Video and excerpt are available below:

Photo credit: Aaron Clamage © American Enterprise Institute

“We’ve had seven years now of policies that frankly have been focused on befriending our enemies and distancing ourselves from our allies. 

“In 2009, there was a historic opportunity in Iran to have a chance at reaching out to the people of that country who had gone to the streets after a stolen election. [W]e had the president make his strategic calculus … not to reach out in support of the people, but instead … with the ayatollah.  We also saw another calculus on the part of the administration … to embrace the Muslim Brotherhood that had been funded partially by Iran… but distance ourselves from the people of Egypt.

“The consequences of these strategies was to leave us in the Middle East in a position … where … people no longer trusted the judgement of the administration.  That’s important because that means people no longer necessarily take our counsel.  They began to take things into their own hands. Or they begin to adopt a new calculus in terms of who the regional hegemon is going to be based upon the assumption that we have now tilted toward Iran.”

Watch the Chairman’s full discussion at AEI HERE.

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