“I probably would’ve handled it differently,” Lott told CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod on “The Axe Files” podcast, produced by CNN and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. “My attitude, particularly on the Supreme Court, was that elections do have consequences, sometimes bad, and I tried to lean towards being supportive of the President’s nominees, Democrat or Republican.”

“If they were qualified by education, experience, and demeanor and had no other side problem, my predisposition was to be for them,” added the Mississippi Republican, who led the Senate from 1996 to 2001.