It should well be noted that Benjamin Wittes, the person quoted in parent by NPR, is a noted proponent of increased national security at the cost of encryption.[1][2][3] While he is a Fellow at the Brookings Institute, which is generally considered non-partisan but liberal-leaning, Wittes and Brookings' stance on matters of national security have been quite pro-government / pro-"security", and he is also a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law. The Hoover Institution is generally regarded as right-leaning[4][5]. His positions are consistently in line with the FBI's, believing that end-to-end encryption with no backdoor is bad for national security and worth the tradeoff.
[1]: https://www.lawfareblog.com/encryption-living-will-think-you... , [2]: https://www.lawfareblog.com/quick-question-apple-hr [3]: https://www.lawfareblog.com/very-definition-digital-age-chut... [4]: http://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0327/032756.html , [5]: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hoover-Institution-on-War-R...