U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions drew fire Thursday for comments about the federal judge from Hawaii who halted President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

Sessions referred to U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson as “a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific” in an interview Tuesday on “The Mark Levin Show,” a conservative talk radio program.

“We are confident that the president will prevail on appeal and particularly in the Supreme Court, if not the 9th Circuit,” Sessions said. “So this is a huge matter. I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power.”

Watson issued an order last month blocking a ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries — a decision the Department of Justice appealed.

Hawaii’s U.S. senators were harsh in their responses, particularly on Twitter.

Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, tweeted: “Hey Jeff Sessions, this #IslandinthePacific has been the 50th state for going on 58 years. And we won’t succumb to your dog whistle politics,” and, “Hawaii was built on the strength of diversity & immigrant experiences- including my own. Jeff Sessions’ comments are ignorant & dangerous.”

Hirono also slammed Sessions in a statement: “The suggestion that being from Hawaii somehow disqualifies Judge Watson from performing his Constitutional duty is dangerous, ignorant, and prejudiced. I am frankly dumbfounded that our nation’s top lawyer would attack our independent judiciary. But we shouldn’t be surprised.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, tweeted, “Mr. Attorney General: You voted for that judge. And that island is called Oahu. It’s my home. Have some respect.”

Justice Department spokesman Ian D. Prior clarified Sessions’ remarks in a statement: “Hawaii is, in fact, an island in the Pacific — a beautiful one where the Attorney General’s granddaughter was born,” he said. “The point, however, is that there is a problem when a flawed opinion by a single judge can block the President’s lawful exercise of authority to keep the entire country safe.”

Hawaii Kai resident Jason Cooper, 41, said, “I think Mazie Hirono and Sen. Schatz summed it up best. It just goes to U.S. Attorney General Sessions’ bigotry. It’s just apparent.”

Jerry Young, 73, a fifth-generation Hawaii-born man who now lives in Los Gatos, Calif., said, “When they stopped the Muslims coming to the U.S., that’s reminiscent of what they did to the Japanese here (during World War II). That’s why Hawaii doesn’t like that.”

“Is he thinking we’re not a state?” Andrew Montemayor, 51, of Manoa asked. “I’m kind of a Trump supporter, but he shouldn’t be disrespecting us like that. Being an island in the Pacific shouldn’t even be an issue.”

Another resident said Sessions’ comments angered him so much that he did not want to respond.

Keaau resident Hidy Akina, who is in her 50s, said, “It’s obvious he doesn’t care, and he doesn’t live here. I’m glad our judge is fighting it (the travel ban). That’s where our income is coming from. We depend on tourism.”

James Weber, 65, of Hawaii Kai did not address Sessions’ island-in-the-Pacific comments. Instead, he said, “I think judges in this country have too much power. How can a judge override the president of the United States?”

Watson, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, was confirmed in 2013 by a 94-0 vote; Sessions, then a U.S. senator from Alabama, was among those who cast an approving vote. A former federal prosecutor, Watson earned his law degree from Harvard alongside Obama and Neil M. Gorsuch, the newly seated Supreme Court justice. He is the only judge of Native Hawaiian descent on the federal bench.

Last month Watson issued a nationwide injunction blocking President Donald Trump’s travel ban, ruling that the plaintiffs — the state of Hawaii and Ismail Elshikh, imam of the Muslim Association of Hawaii — had reasonable grounds to challenge the order as religious discrimination. He cited comments dating to Trump’s original call, during the 2016 campaign, for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

During the arguments the government had contended that looking beyond the text of the order to infer religious animus would amount to investigating Trump’s “veiled psyche,” but Watson wrote in his decision that there was “nothing ‘veiled’” about Trump’s public remarks. Still, Sessions reiterated that line of argument in the radio interview, saying he believed the judge’s reasoning was improper and would be overturned.

“The judges don’t get to psychoanalyze the president to see if the order he issues is lawful,” Sessions said. “It’s either lawful or it’s not.”

The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.