For much of his presidency, Clinton’s spin team had to put out fires tied to charges of presidential misconduct: from Travelgate (assertions that members of the White House Travel Office had been unfairly fired) to Whitewater (an investigation over a real estate venture by the Clintons) to campaign finance violations during the 1996 campaign. Then: accusations of sexual harassment by Paula Jones, which turned into testimony under oath about his affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

The result was a media circus, but Clinton won where Nixon lost. Why? Because Clinton’s spinmeisters had mastered the post-Watergate media landscape and were ready for a televised battle for political justice.

From Day One, Clinton’s team assumed the offensive, realizing that winning the public over was crucial to survival. Clinton’s surrogates hit the talk show circuit to disparage Lewinsky’s reputation, question the political motivations of special investigator Kenneth Starr and attack the media itself for reporting on rumors, not facts, and traipsing unfairly into the president’s personal life. When the investigation forced Clinton to admit to the affair, he projected serious contrition for his moral failures and personal shortcomings, even as he emphasized his right to privacy. This stance reinforced the larger narrative crafted by his administration about the excessive partisanship driving the investigation and the personal nature of the charges: that Clinton hadn’t engaged in serious misconduct, he had failed on a human level and partisan opponents were trying to weaponize it.