Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) downplayed the attacks members of his own party have leveled against President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court during the first days of her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“It struck me that it was off course, meaning the attacks were off course that came from some,” Romney told The Washington Post on Tuesday. “And there is no ‘there’ there.”
The senator had been asked about a line of questioning from his fellow Republican, Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), who earlier in the day grilled Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson about a ruling she made involving a child pornography case in a lower court.
Hawley and other conservatives have criticized Jackson for giving a defendant in a child porn case a three-month prison sentence, below the government’s recommendation of two years in prison and far below the federal advisory guideline of a minimum of eight years of incarceration.
Romney told the Post he was more concerned with Jackson’s overall judicial philosophy.
Since being elected to the upper chamber in 2018, the moderate senator has repeatedly denounced members of his own party who espouse beliefs similar to that of former President Trump.
Earlier this year, he defended Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) after Trump lashed out at him for shooting down Trump’s false claims the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.