Hot mic moment?

Reader question:

Please explain “hot mic moment” – hot mic?

My comments:

A hot mic moment is an awkward moment, awkward because someone who is caught mic saying something embarrassing or otherwise inappropriate – while on hot mic.

On hot mic?

While the mic is hot, i.e. live, mic being the microphone one speaks into.

Before a speaker makes a speech on the podium, for example, he checks if the microphone is working. After the speech, he turns the microphone off before walking away.

While he is walking away and off the stage, he mutters to himself: “What a waste of time.”

This becomes a hot mic moment if and when the mic is still on. He thinks he’s turned it off but actually he has pushed a wrong button. The microphone is still on, recording everything.

So, all members of the audience hear his remark, thinking the speaker deems all of them a bunch of fools wasting his precious time.

What happens next or shortly after is, often and understandably, that the speaker has to apologize and clarify his remarks. He probably will say that he’s given a poor performance because he’s very tired, that his speech is uninspiring and therefore undeserving of the love he receives from the audience, that he’s the one who’s a waste of time and that, in short, he’s in no way disrespectful of the audience.

Something like that.

Anyways, hot mic moments are when speakers are caught unawares saying something embarrassing or otherwise inappropriate – while the microphone is still on.

Had the speaker known that the microphone is still on, he wouldn’t have said what he said.

It’s as simple as that.

All right, let’s read a few media examples to get really familiar with “hot mic” moments:

1. LeBron James was caught on a hot mic talking about his tense interaction with Stephen A. Smith.

Before the Lakers took a loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday, March 8, James was filmed speaking with ESPN broadcaster Richard Jefferson on the sidelines. In the video, the Lakers star, 40, appeared to recount his heated conversation with Smith, 57, while talking to Jefferson.

James and Jefferson seemed to attempt to keep their conversation quiet at first by speaking into one another’s ears, with James responding to something Jefferson said with “I know,” before the father of three said, “Right, right, right.”

“That’s the only thing I’m tripping,” James said, continuing, “I don’t give a f---. Once he talks about, ‘I’m pleading to you as a father.’ I can’t.”

The conversation comes just days after James’ heated run-in with Smith courtside on March 6 was caught on cameras. Fans speculated that James was confronting Smith about his criticism of Bronny James – who joined his father on the Lakers roster this season.

Smith confirmed that James was upset with him about his comments slamming Bronny, 20, and said he’s “not blaming” him “one bit” for defending his rookie son.

“I really understood where he was coming from,” Smith said on ESPN’s First Take after the incident went viral. “He was very, very upset. I could tell. But he could’ve called me. I’d have come to see him. I’d have had a conversation with him. He could’ve been just as upset face-to-face, man-to-man as opposed to being courtside at the game.”

Smith said he had “no idea” the video had spread on social media “until I woke up this morning.”

“But it is what it is in the end,” Smith continued. “Like I said, as a father, I get it. I’m not offended. I’m not insulted. I don’t have any animosity or animus towards LeBron James for this, nothing like that.”

Smith has criticized Bronny’s performance in the NBA since he was drafted and said in recent weeks that he believes Bronny, averaging 1.4 points per game this season, is only in the NBA “because of his dad.”

- LeBron James Caught on Hot Mic Recounting Heated Incident with Stephen A. Smith to Richard Jefferson, People.com, March 10, 2025.

2. Donald Trump just can’t get away from his old pal Jeffrey Epstein, as now a fellow Republican is claiming the president is in the late pedophile’s files, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Georgia Rep. Mike Collins was caught accusing his leader of being in the files in a hot mic moment captured during a county GOP meeting, according to a report.

What Did Mike Collins Say?

When an attendee asked Collins if Trump is in the files, the politician was quick to give his thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s in there,” Collins said at the August 13 Muscogee County GOP meeting, according to an audio clip uploaded to YouTube. The 58-year-old then explained his reasoning, saying it is because Trump “was the one that was telling the FBI about it.”

He continued in the clip: “He’s the one that kicked [Epstein] out of Mar-a-Lago and then called the FBI... Yeah, yeah, he’s in there.”

After he was asked if he is going to vote for the files’ release, Collins responded: “Oh, we need to release them. I have no problem releasing it, but you’ve got to go through the judicial.”

He added: “I’m not a lawyer and I’m not a judge, but it is more complicated than just saying, ‘boom, here’s the files.’”

- Georgia Republican Caught Claiming Trump Is in the Epstein Files in Damning Hot Mic Moment... and Begs ‘Evidence’ Be Released, RadarOnLine.com, August 27 2025.

3. It’s not unusual for tech company CEOs to make the journey to Washington, DC, and announce billion-dollar investments to curry favor with politicians in power. Apple CEO Tim Cook was in the Oval Office last month, a piece of Apple-shaped glass and a 24-karat gold base in hand, to pledge another $100 billion in US investment over the next four years, for a total of $600 billion.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg perhaps had that number on his mind this week when he joined his fellow Silicon Valley heavy hitters at the White House for a dinner with President Trump. Zuckerberg was seated next to the president, who at one point leaned over and asked him, “How much are you spending, would you say, over the next few years?”

A flustered Zuckerberg responded, “Oh gosh, um, I mean, I think it’s probably going to be something like, at least $600 billion through ’28 in the US, yeah.”

“That’s a lot, that’s a lot,” Trump said.

It is indeed. Once the discussion concluded, Zuckerberg leaned over to Trump to privately admit the president had caught him off guard. “I’m sorry I wasn’t ready...I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with,” Zuckerberg said in a revealing moment caught on a hot mic.

- Zuckerberg Caught in Revealing Hot Mic Moment During White House Dinner, PCMag.com, September 5, 2025.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）