The thing about Senate confirmation hearings is that its all theatrics. I think he is telling the Senate Dems what they want to hear (gay marriage is a "super precedent" blah blah blah, nod and kiss butt) but on the flip side, he is ALSO telling the Senate Republicans what they want to hear (I'm an "originalist", I don't believe in legislating from the bench, blah blah blah)
Confirmation hearings are grueling for any nominee and they will say WHATEVER it takes to get a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court.
Given the stakes involved (and the lousy track record of GOP presidents -- even Coolidge and Reagan BOTH gave us an awful SCOTUS judge), I am very hesitant to support ANY SCOTUS nominee unless I am certain beyond a reasonable doubt they will make conservative decisions. Out of the last seven Supreme Court nominations (Roberts, Miers, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagen, Garland, Gorsuch), I have backed only two of them -- Roberts and Alito -- and we all turned out to be wrong on Roberts (whose background was much MORE conservative than Gorsuch), so I find it bizarre how many conservatives still believe we should immediately rubber stamp whatever judge an "R" President gives us.
One thing history has taught me is that what a judge claims about their "judicial philosophy" means absolutely nothing. Scores of terrible judges at all levels of judicial appointments were marketed as "originalists" and "strict constructists", including the judges who gave us Roe v. Wade, gay marriage, and upheld Obamacare. I care only that the judge's personal background is clearly conservative and has been that way for years. There is ZERO excuse for replacing a staunchly conservative judge with a questionable judge when its a GOP president sending the nomination to a GOP Senate.
Apparently some conservatives feel the opposite way (don't give a crap about whether the judge's background is conservative or not, as long as the judge is marketed as a so-called "originalist"), and the result of that mindset has been this, over and over again: 