Pompeo Decries Proliferation of ‘Human Rights’ Claims in Speech

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo criticized what he called the dilution of core human rights for the sake of political “pet causes,” in a speech in his home state of Kansas that will appeal to conservative voters whose support he’ll need if he decides to run for the Senate in 2020.

Politicians have “from time to time have framed pet causes as fights for rights to bypass the normal process by which political ends are achieved,” Pompeo said Friday at Kansas State University. “This is an imperfect analogy, but the thirteenth ice cream cone isn’t as good as the first one was. And with respect to unalienable rights, more, per se, is not always better.”