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In the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, dated June 12, 2025, author, activist, and TV personality Marc Lamont Hill recalled an incident where he got pepper-sprayed by a woman at an event.
Shortly after Hill mentioned the incident in the podcast episode titled Up To My Witts End, a video of it went viral on the internet. The video was shared by After Hours X JBTV on X (formerly Twitter), where a woman is seen walking up to the author after talking to him via a mic at a distance.
Once the woman started approaching Hill, the author appeared to get cautious, but she ended up pepper-spraying him. Hill got up and escaped behind the stage curtain, while security guards at the venue restrained the woman.
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Marc Lamont Hill talked about the incident during his The Joe Budden Podcast appearance.
"I got pepper-sprayed at an event last year... I was giving a speech, and a woman walked up during Q&A and pepper-sprayed me in the eyes. I was mad as s*it... You can hear me on the tape, I said, "Do not call the police." Cause I walk it like I talk it... She was mentally ill... She had been stalking me for like a couple weeks, and I didn't know at the store and all these other places," he said.
Once he shared the incident, the panel on the podcast joked about Hill's situation, saying he must've had an affair with the woman who pepper-sprayed him, resulting in her actions.
Details behind Marc Lamont Hill's firing from CNN explored in wake of viral pepper-spray video
During a Q&A session on Hill's official YouTube channel, published May 8, 2025, he was asked a question by someone who followed his primary work in politics. The netizen questioned Marc about what made him join The Joe Budden Podcast.
For the unversed, Hill was a political commentator for CNN, but was fired from the news organization in November 2018. While CNN's spokesperson confirmed that Hill wasn't under their contract anymore, the organization didn't offer a reason for the same.
However, as per a November 2018 NBC News report, Marc Lamont Hill's dismissal from CNN came right around the time of his speech on Israel and Palestine at the United Nations.
"We have an opportunity to not just offer solidarity in words but to commit to political action, grass-roots action, local action and international action that will give us what justice requires and that is a free Palestine from the river to the sea," Marc mentioned in the speech.
The former political commentator's "river to the sea" phrase was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, claiming that it was a code of destruction toward Israel used by Hamas and other destructive groups.
Years after he departed from CNN, Marc Lamont Hill joined The Joe Budden Podcast in 2024. Answering the netizen's question about his shift from politics to the podcast, Hill said that he had been a fan of the podcast and praised the other co-hosts.
"I also thought I had something to offer... Joe never said, "Hey Marc, come up here and talk politics." And I never said, "Hey Joe, can I please come up here and talk politics?" he said.
Marc Lamont Hill also talked about how he wanted to continue the discourse.
"I wanted to talk about all the sh*t everyone else was talking about. I thought I could add some political stuff to it and add some texture and context, which I thought would be great, but I thought I could give intellectual interventions and context to all that stuff from my vantage point," he said.
In addition to co-hosting The Joe Budden Podcast, Marc Lamont Hill has hosted UpFront on Al Jazeera English and VH1 Live! on VH1. He is also a professor of urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center, New York City.
