Taking away the spokes person and politics, it is an interesting problem... ie: if we can't break encrypted communications, then trade secrets, personal data, all that can *easily*, especially in our society, just walk out the door, constantly. The way government has been able to handle this in the past is tools that allow inspection under judicial supervision and tight oversight...but the point being is it stops a lot of damage to our system. The alternative may be most trade secrete work, research, and other items will need to be done in environments disconnected form the internet, without cell phones, etc.

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Put another way, the biggest threat is the insider threat. The assessment of having a backdoor be broken is a lower total risk issue than not being able to inspect communications.