CNN: Kavanaugh Called Scalia a 'Hero and a Role Model'

President Donald Trump's latest Supreme Court nominee gushed about the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia in a 2016 speech, according to a new report.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, had glowing things to say about Scalia, who died in early 2016.

"I loved the guy," Kavanaugh said at a June 2016 conference at George Mason Law School, CNN reported Monday. "To me, he was and remains a hero and a role model. He thought carefully about his principles. He articulated those principles. And he stood up for those principles. As a judge, he did not buckle to political or academic pressure from the right or the left."

The suburban Virginia university's law school has since been renamed the Antonin Scalia Law School.

In 2017, Kavanaugh had similar words to say about the right-leaning Scalia, who was found dead in February 2016 at a Texas ranch.

"Justice Scalia was and remains a judicial hero and role model to many throughout America," Kavanaugh said at Notre Dame Law School, CNN reported.

Trump picked Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court in July to replace the retired Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy. Democrats have pushed back hard on Kavanaugh's nomination, saying he would bring too much conservatism to the nation's highest court.

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