Obama Adviser Disputes Idea Liberal Groups Are Not Happy with Garland

MITCHELL: "... his support for the George W. Bush administration’s position in judicial rulings about the  Guantanamo detainees, his rulings against the rights of criminal defendants. Liberal and so-called progressive groups are not happy with this nominee."
DEESE: "Well, I think that, first of all, what you’ve seen over the past 48 hours is an enormous amount of support and that support has  ranged across the board. So I think that I would take issue with your characterization that across the board, progressive groups aren’t happy -- you’ve seen progressive groups reinforce that this is an eminently qualified nominee and call on the Senate to do their job and move forward in consideration of the nominee. But, look, chief judge Garland has an extraordinary record of public service, on the bench, as a prosecutor, and in private practice. And this process is about everybody taking a hard look at that. We’re confident that when people look at his record, they will see what the facts are, which is somebody who is decent and who is fair and who does what the law requires in a very thoughtful way who builds bridges, and builds consensus. And this is the kind of nominee that deserves to be on the court. So look, this process goes in stages as we all know. A couple of days ago, Republicans were saying they would not even meet with the potential nominee. Now, an increasing number of Republicans say they will meet. We’ll do those meetings. People are going to have a chance to really understand chief judge Garland and it will just become increasingly apparent that his qualifications speak for themselves."
MITCHELL: "Brian Deese, thank you very much for joining us today.This battle will go all summer, I suspect."
DEESE: "We’ll keep making the case. Thank you."
MITCHELL: "Thank you very much."