Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) on Wednesday downplayed the Senate's rebuke of Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenNo new taxes for the ultra rich — fix bad tax policy instead Democrats back away from quick reversal of Trump tax cuts It's time for newspapers to stop endorsing presidential candidates MORE (D-Mass.) a night earlier.

“Sometimes you get a little heated on the floor, you directly address a senator, and you call them out on something and then they say, ‘You can’t do that,’ ” Santorum said Wednesday on CNN’s “New Day.”

“In the case of Elizabeth Warren, she didn’t back off. She made those comments; she said she agreed with those comments; and she suffered the consequences.”

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Santorum said the Senate's adherence to longstanding rules should be no surprise to Warren.

“The whole reason for these rules is to keep the temperature down,” he said. "All of this is in place and has been for hundreds of years.”

As Democrats held the Senate floor overnight Tuesday to protest Sen. Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE's (R-Ala.) nomination to be attorney general, Warren quoted a 1986 letter that Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote opposing Sessions's nomination for a federal judgeship at the time.

The Senate voted to bar Warren from speaking on the floor, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE (R-Ky.) said Warren had violated chamber rules and “impugned” President Trump’s Cabinet nominee.

“[Sessions] made derogatory and racist comments that should have no place in our justice system,” Warren said. "To put Sen. Sessions in charge of the Department of Justice is an insult to African-Americans.”