Ken Burns Calls Gov. DeSantis ‘Authoritarian’ for Sending Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

BURNS: It’s basically saying that you can use a human life, that is as valuable as yours or mine, or Lynn’s, and to put it in a position of becoming a political pawn in somebody’s authoritarian game. This is coming straight out of the authoritarian playbook. This is what’s so disturbing about DeSantis, is to use human beings, to weaponize human beings for a political purpose. It’s like when somebody disagrees with him in Florida, like the Walt Disney company, he punishes them. This is not the actions of a person participating in a democratic process in which there’s an exchange of ideas, this is about punishing political enemies, putting on shows, political shows, political theater, and in this case, this is with the lives of human beings. And what’s so ironic is these are Venezuelan refugees which DeSantis should be supporting because they’re trying to flee the corruption of a left-wing government and all of the pain there. And so, the level of cynicism is beyond that. And what we find in all our films is that the themes that we engage in the past are present today. And so when you look at the story that we’re telling of the U.S. and the Holocaust, you understand that the time to save a democracy is before it’s lost, we promise you.”