'Head-spinning': Pulitzer-winning historian says 2024 election unlike any since 1968

A Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian shared Wednesday why she feels the 2024 election cycle is the most "head-spinning" she's seen in decades.

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin appeared on CNN's "OutFront" with Erin Burnett. Burnett asked if this election season — with the assassination attempt, Joe Biden's unceremonious exit from the race following a disastrous debate performance and the first Black and Asian woman winning the Democratic nomination — has left Goodwin's head "spinning."

"Without question," replied Goodwin.

She compared the last eight weeks to the 1968 convention and election.

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"Everybody thought Lyndon Johnson was the nominee to be the candidate running against the Republican, who turns out to be Richard Nixon once again. They thought that there was no chance that anyone could undo him. He then decides to withdraw from the race on March 31. And then it looks like it's going to be a debate between Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy. Then Martin Luther King is killed, Robert Kennedy is killed. And then you get to that Democratic convention," she said, where Democrats "lost that election that day."

"I lived through that time," she said. "It was head-spinning then, it's head-spinning now."

Goodwin said she has confidence that whether Kamal Harris or Donald Trump wins, the country will rise above.

"This is why history is so important!" she said. "It's why I love it so much."

She said the country needs history.

"We need perspective. We need their lessons. We need their hope!" she said.

Watch the clip below or at this link.