Donald Trump's Twitter rampages might be the best thing to ever happen to Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court hopes.

The White House denies it, but according to Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, Gorsuch told him in a private meeting that he's "disheartened" by Donald Trump's attacks on the judiciary.

Blumenthal told the story of what happened during an appearance on CNN.

"I said to Judge Gorsuch that I find the attacks on the judiciary absolutely abhorrent and unacceptable and I asked him to express his criticism and to condemn these kinds of public attacks on an independent judiciary. and at that point after some back-and-forth he did say that he found them to be disheartening and demoralizing".

Former New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte - who's helping Trump move Gorsuch through the confirmation process - seemed to confirm Gorsuch's remarks in a statement she released this morning.

Ayotte said that "[Gorsuch] finds any criticism of a judge's integrity and independence disheartening and demoralizing."

Hearing stuff like this is probably reassuring to a lot of liberals.

The idea that Trump's Supreme Court pick will stick up to him when Trump gets out of control sounds a lot better than the rubber stamp a lot of them probably expected.

But are Democrats being played?

Is all this "Gorsuch getting disheartened" talk actually just a way for Republicans to normalize someone who's in reality a very dangerous ideologue?