Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday that some Senate Republicans were “literally under assault” ahead of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote last week.

McConnell told reporters in Kentucky that protesters that flooded Washington over the past weeks were trained to “almost attack” Senate Republicans supporting Kavanaugh and to pressure senators to oppose him, calling it a “full-scale effort to intimidate” by those individuals.