WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Cory Booker once called those who supported putting Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Supreme Court "complicit in evil."

Booker, D-N.J., said he didn't mean it quite that way. But he says he's learned a big lesson.

"I've been exuberant in my beliefs and I've learned lot through this process," Booker said when it was his turn to speak during Friday's Senate Judiciary Committee meeting to consider Kavanaugh's nomination. "Some of my comments have been referenced numerous times and I know that I have not been as precise and allowed my comments to be mischaracterized.

"I don't blame those people mischaracterizing my comments," he said. "I take responsibility and have learned to be more precise."

One of those who objected to Booker's comments was Kavanaugh himself, who discussed them in his opening statement on Thursday.

"A Democratic senator on this committee publicly referred to me as evil -- evil, think about that word -- and said those who supported me were 'complicit in evil,'" Kavanaugh said.

Another was Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, who went to the Senate floor after Booker made his comments and called them "completely unhinged and detached from any reality."

Booker had called out Kavanaugh supporters during a Capitol news conference when he called the fight against President Donald Trump's nominee a "moral moment" and saying that, "You are either complicit in the evil, you are either contributing to the wrong, or you are fighting against it."

Kavanaugh would provide solidify a five-member conservative bloc on the Supreme Court that has shown little reticence to overturn decades of precedent and legislation on issues such as voting rights, workers' rights and campaign donations.

Trump nominated Kavanaugh after pledging during the campaign to pick justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

Booker said Friday that he was applying the lessons he learned in sports, where he played football in high school and then at Stanford University.

"I fought hard during this process," Booker said. "I've given it everything I've got. I learned that, heck, going back to being a football player. Between the whistles, you fight as hard as you can for what you believe."

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook