Transcript of relevant part from CNBC interview:
Ross: There's no question that they're liberalizing their society, and I think the other thing that was fascinating to me, there was not a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there, not one guy with a bad placard. Instead, there was--
Interviewer: But, Secretary Ross, that may be not necessarily because they don't have those feelings there but because they, they control people and don't allow them to come and express their feelings quite the same as we do here.
Ross: In theory that could be true, but boy there was certainly no sign of it, there was not a single effort at any incursion, there wasn't anything. The--the mood was a genuinely good mood, and at the end of the trip, as I was getting back on the plane, the security guards from the Saudi side who'd been helping us over the weekend all wanted to pose for a big photo op, and then they gave me two gigantic bushels of dates as a present, a thank you for the trip that we had had. That was a pretty from-the-heart, very genuine gesture, and it really touched me.
"Well, yeah, there were no protests, and maybe it's because they don't let us protest"--and boy I wish we could do that here!--"but let's focus on the far more important fact that they gave me tons of dates!"