That Garland felt he had to respond at all suggests he's feeling the heat and knows he's currently losing the PR posturing battle.
I understand where you're coming from, but Garland had meat on the bone he threw out today. It wasn't empty words. I think it was a smart move to ask to unseal the documents this soon. It puts the ball squarely in Trump's court. As others have said, I don't think it will change the minds of his supporters - just like Trump insisted he wasn't a tax dodger, but refused to let anyone see his records voluntarily. His supporters don't care. Their arguments are fluid. If Garland had videotape evidence of Trump stealing classified documents and audio of him admitting he was planning on selling it directly to Russia in person at Mar-A-Lago, the argument would shift from "He did nothing wrong, this is a witch hunt" to "As a former president, he was able to declassify anything he wanted at any time and thus its all ok and this is a witch hunt". Republicans demanded Garland release info. He's done that, and now the argument will move again.
There is no way to "win" these arguments when the opposing side will never accept defeat or admit to being wrong. So as myself and others have said, you may as well let them continue to be pissed off while doing the right thing, instead of doing nothing out of fear of the repercussions. Because if you do nothing, that too will be fodder for them to preach about how successful they are and what a standup, transparent, honest, perfect man Trump is.
Maybe its just wishful thinking, and these last seven years seems like a long time, but Trump hasn't really been a politician for all that long. Seven years isn't that long a stretch of time, and its only been five since he took office and the movement morphed from devoted defenses of him to full-on cult status. Nothing lasts forever, and the GOP is on an unsustainable path. I do think all of this will eventually catch up with them, and just as fast as Trump took the morons in this country for a ride and drug the GOP political elite with him, it can turn around just as quickly. There will come a time when condemning Trump and distancing yourself from him will be just as popular as clinging to his sinking ship.