Hot mics have a knack for revealing unguarded moments in politics. On Monday, one captured President Donald Trump and eight European leaders chatting at a White House news conference about Ukraine.
Behold the power of the humble hot mic.
The magnifier of sound, a descendant of 150-year-old technology, on Monday added to its long history of cutting through the most scripted political spectacles when it captured more than two minutes of U.S. President Donald Trump and eight European leaders chit-chatting around a White House news conference on their talks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The standout quote came from Trump himself to French President Emmanuel Macron even before anyone sat down. The American president, reflecting his comments after meeting in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I think he wants to make a deal for me, you understand, as crazy as it sounds.”
How politics and diplomacy sound when the principals think no one is listening can reveal much about the character, humor and humanity of our leaders — for better and sometimes for worse. As public figures, they’ve long known what the rest of us are increasingly learning in the age of CCTV, Coldplay kiss cams and social media: In public, no one can realistically expect privacy.
“Whenever I hear about a hot mic moment, my first reaction is that this is what they really think, that it’s not gone through the external communications filter,” said Bill McGowan, founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group in New York. “That’s why people love it so much: There is nothing more authentic than what people say on a hot mic.”Always assume the microphone — or camera — is turned on
Hot mics, often leavened with video, have bedeviled aspiring and actual leaders long before social media. During a sound check for his weekly radio address in 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously joked about attacking the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
“My fellow Americans,” Reagan quipped, not realizing the practice run was being recorded. “I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” The Soviet Union didn’t find it funny and condemned it given the consequential subject at hand.
