Republican Sen. Ben Sasse tore into his own branch of government Tuesday as he slammed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing process as an �overblown, politicized circus.�

At the Judiciary Committee hearing, the Nebraska senator blamed a dysfunctional Congress for the overheated drama surrounding high court nominations. As the opening day devolved into a spectacle of protests and objections, Sasse explained there’s so much “hysteria” and pressure with regard to the court because “Congress has decided to self-neuter.”

He lamented that the Supreme Court justices, in turn, are expected to be “super legislators.” This “misunderstanding of the role of the Supreme Court,� he argued, accounts for the vitriolic rhetoric aimed at Kavanaugh.