On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” longtime reporter Dan Rather highlighted one of the final strategies Republicans have left to try to blunt the public’s enthusiasm for impeachment: Desensitize them to the facts that are damning for President Donald Trump.

“What jumped out to me today is the effort by the Republicans to sort of say, listen, everybody knows all of this,” said Rather. “They seek to have people become numb to what we already know. That’s what jumped out to me today, because we already know that the evidence we’re talking about now, the solicitation of a foreign power to get involved in our election, the evidence is strong.”

“The complicity of the Republicans is depressing, and it’s a serious moment for the country. We know that,” continued Rather. “What the Republicans sought to do today, and others likely judge whether they were successful or not, was trying to convince people, this is no big deal. If you’re saying to yourself, you already know this, yeah, that’s the case. That’s what jumped out.”

“In terms of comparison with the Watergate period and the Clinton impeachment, this is completely different for a long list of reasons, which we will not go down the whole list, but first and foremost, this is the first time in which we’ve had an impeachment proceeding in which it involved questions of a foreign power involved in elections or sought to be involved in elections, and very serious military national security issues,” added Rather. “That didn’t exist with the Clinton impeachment. It didn’t exist with the impeachment effort against Richard Nixon, who resigned.”

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