Ken Burns is making a history-based fundraising pitch for Vice President Harris’s White House campaign, saying that “our democracy hangs in the balance.”
In a Wednesday fundraising email from Harris’s campaign that was signed by Burns, the “Civil War” documentary filmmaker called the presidential race “among the most critical elections in our country’s history.”
Asking supporters for $25 donations, Burns praised Harris and President Biden, saying that future generations will judge them as having had “legislative accomplishments that make them one of our nation’s most effective administrations.”
Burns blasted former President Trump, who he said “has threatened the most basic tenets of our democracy, such as the peaceful transfer of power, and he bears the historic distinction of being the first former president to have 34 felony convictions.”
History, the 71-year-old Emmy Award winner said, has “shown us that when it comes to Donald Trump, complacency is our greatest enemy.”
“History will remember our actions in this moment,” the political donation appeal said.
“Let’s not saddle ourselves — or our nation — with regrets,” he said. “Our democracy depends on it.”
The history pro is also poised to headline a virtual Harris fundraiser next week with actor Tom Hanks. The conversation with the “Saving Private Ryan” star, Burns said on Wednesday, would focus on “our history and our future.”
In an interview earlier this week, Burns criticized the “incredibly dangerous” GOP, saying, “It’s going to be difficult for the Republican Party to figure out a way to escape the specific gravity of the darkness that now engulfs it.”