Dan Rather: Divisive 1968 election is 'closest parallel' to this year's campaign

In analyzing this year's election season, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather reached back 41 years.

"1968 is the year closest to what we're experiencing here in 2016," he told MSNBC's Chris Hayes. "The country really felt wrecked at times. Anti-war demonstrations, and the assassinations of not only President John Kennedy but Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King. There were race riots in the streets."

The former CBS Evening News stalwart and current AXS TV host was quick to add that it was not an exact parallel.

"There was no social media in 1968, which would have made a big difference," he noted.

Up until that year, Rather said, the country's two major parties focused more on their national conventions than their primaries for party business.

"With the Republican convention in Cleveland, there's more unpredictability with it," he said. "Donald Trump has the wall and the opposition to Muslim immigration as the two main anchors of what he stands for. Beyond that, it gets very confusing."

Watch the interview, as aired on Monday, below.