Highlights from Senate vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., raising the fact that Judge Jackson shares a birthday with Judge Constance Baker Motley, the nation’s first Black woman to serve as a federal judge, asked Jackson to tell women and girls watching the hearings why Jackson said in her opening she stands on the shoulders of Motley and so many others.

"I so admired the fact that she was the first," Jackson said. “It's not necessarily easy to be the first, but it is an opportunity to show other people what is possible."

"When you're the first it means no one has ever done it before like you -- and there may be hundreds, thousands of people who might have wanted that opportunity and thought, 'I can't do that because there's no one there like me,'" Jackson continued.

"Being a trailblazer, whether it's Judge Motley or Justice Marshall or Justice O'Connor, being a trailblazer is really inspiring, I think," she added. "And I was always moved by Judge Motley's experience and think it may even be part of why I moved in this direction."

As Republicans continue to question Judge Jackson on her child pornography sentencing, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., put the onus on Congress to update federal sentencing guidelines judges follow for those cases, which were created before the internet was widely accessible.

Appearing to warn Americans watching along at home, Coons characterized the probing as "unfair" and a "misrepresentation" of Jackson’s record.

"I would simply put for those who are watching and trying to understand what all of this is about, that is an attempt to distract from your broad support, your deep record, your outstanding intellectual and legal credentials that we are taking what is a policy dispute that should be decided by members of the Senate," Coons said.

"If we want to change the sentencing guidelines to make them mandatory rather than advisory, if we want to change the structure within which a federal judge imposes sentences, we could do that. But to demand that you be held accountable for this practice that is nationwide and is years old, I view, as an unfair misrepresentation of your record," he added.

President Joe Biden is proud of the "intellect" and "grace" Jackson has displayed during the confirmation hearing, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.

"The president was also impressed with how she dismantled bad faith conspiracy theories that have been fact checked by major media outlets and experts," she said.

When asked about allegations that Jackson is a critical race theory proponent, Jean-Pierre repeated some of Jackson's own defense laid out during the hearing, saying the judge "applies the facts and the law when making decisions on the bench, not academic theory."

-ABC News' Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, engaged in a lengthy argument over whether Judge Jackson should answer a question from Cruz regarding the length of a specific sentence in a child pornography case.

"I have spoken at length throughout this hearing about these cases. I have said what I'm going to say, which is I have taken every case seriously. These are very horrible crimes," she said.

Repeatedly interrupting his former Harvard University classmate and going over his allotted time for questioning, Cruz challenged Jackson that he was asking about a specific case, prompting Durbin to jump in and admonish him.

"Senator, would you please let her respond?" Durbin said.

"No, not if she’s not going to answer my question," Cruz replied.

"Senator, I did not say I’m not going to answer," Jackson offered at another point.

"I’ll just say to the judge, there’s no point responding. He’s going to interrupt you," Durbin added later, to which Cruz said, "if you want to join her on the bench, you can."

After Durbin loudly banged the committee gavel, Cruz said, "You can bang it as loud as you want."

While Jackson has explained several times under questioning how she approaches child pornography cases and defended her sentences, Cruz refused to back down and added to Durbin, "Apparently, you are very afraid of the American people hearing the answer the question."

-ABC News' Trish Turner