Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on Wednesday called President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on the judiciary “demoralizing and disheartening” in a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), the senator said, in remarks confirmed by the team tasked with ensuring the judge’s confirmation.

Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the former Connecticut attorney general, said he asked Gorsuch to respond to Trump’s recent outbursts after a federal judge temporarily blocked his executive order to suspend entry of travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries out of national-security concerns.