Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that GOP senators were “literally under assault” during the confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the Senate Republican Conference. We were standing up for the presumption of innocence in this country … And secondly, we were literally under assault,” McConnell said at a press conference in Kentucky. “These demonstrators, I’m sure some of them were well-meaning citizens. But many of them were obviously trying to get in our faces, to go to our homes. Basically almost attack us in the halls of the capitol.

“There was a full-scale effort to intimidate.”

{mosads}McConnell’s comments came just two days after the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in a 50-48 vote. 

The vote concluded what was a contentious confirmation process in which Kavanaugh was accused of sexual assault. Kavanaugh has fiercely denied all the accusations against him.

The judge and Christine Blasey Ford testified last month regarding Ford’s claims that, during a high school party in the 1980s, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to forcibly remove her clothes, covering her mouth with his hand when she tried to scream.

GOP senators said last week that an FBI investigation into Kavanaugh found no evidence to support Ford’s claims. But Democrats railed against the probe’s scope, calling it inadequate and too limited. 

In the days leading up to a final vote, hundreds of demonstrators descended on Capitol Hill to confront lawmakers and protest against Kavanaugh’s confirmation. 

A group of protesters also rallied outside McConnell’s home in Washington, D.C., last Friday. Video of the demonstration showed protesters waving beer cans and red cups and chanting phrases like “What do we do with a drunken justice?”

President Trump, as well as multiple Republican senators, accused the demonstrators that gathered in Senate office buildings of being paid professionals. 

“The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad,” Trump tweeted last Friday. “Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others.”