Neomi Rao, the Trump administration's choice to fill the D.C. Circuit vacancy left by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, defended, and expressed some regret for, writings she penned in the 1990s that have come under scrutiny.

The nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit admitted during a Tuesday confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that some of the language she used in those columns—expressing her views on campus multiculturalism, sexual assault and more—made her “cringe.”

“To be honest looking back at some of those writings and re-reading them, I cringe at some of the language I used,” Rao said Tuesday in an exchange with committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina. “I was young—it's over two decades ago now—but you know, I think I was responding to things that were happening on campus at that time.”