During his iconic career at CBS News, Dan Rather was on the ground in Dallas moments after President Kennedy was assassinated; he covered the civil rights moment and the Vietnam War; and was the only anchor in Tiananmen Square in China before the crackdown on protesters. He was also famously assaulted at the 1968 Democratic National Convention — inspiring Variety to ask Rather, who’s still going strong at 92 (you can read his current “Steady” columns at steady.substack.com), to reflect on that tumultuous moment in American politics and how it compares to what’s happened in 2024.

One of the hallmarks of a good broadcast journalist is the ability to roll with the proverbial punches during live events. You have to be a good ad-libber and be able to pivot, ready for the unexpected. Suffice it to say, I was not ready on March 31, 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson delivered a shocker.

First, a little context. In the early spring of 1968, the country was in turmoil. The unpopular Vietnam War was raging. Protests and riots were widespread on college campuses and in cities large and small. A sitting president was being challenged in the primaries.

I was the White House correspondent for CBS News at the time. That Sunday, the White House requested network airtime for a speech in the Oval Office. I was presenting a special report alongside my colleague Roger Mudd. The President's Press Office had distributed an advance copy of the speech, which was fairly mundane. It was mostly about changing strategies in Vietnam. Then, at the very end of the speech, almost 40 minutes into it, Johnson suddenly went off-script and stunned the world. "I will not seek and will not accept my party's nomination for another term as your president," he said.