Framing the issue as security/safety versus privacy would accept the rhetoric that keeping encryption legal and non-broken would reduce security/safety. (Which aligns with the similar rhetoric about pervasive surveillance.)
The comments by the NSA director didn't seem to have any significant effect on the general government message. As for the White House position (which I had not seen the announcement of, so thank you for the link), they said they won't seek legislation, but they hardly need to at this point; those in Congress seem more than happy to keep proposing such legislation, and I've seen no suggestions that the White House would veto it if passed.
The comments by the NSA director didn't seem to have any significant effect on the general government message. As for the White House position (which I had not seen the announcement of, so thank you for the link), they said they won't seek legislation, but they hardly need to at this point; those in Congress seem more than happy to keep proposing such legislation, and I've seen no suggestions that the White House would veto it if passed.