A reporter is telling her side of the story after her bewildered reaction to a shooting in Washington, D.C. quickly turned her into a viral meme.
NBC News correspondent Julie Tsirkin was preparing to tape a segment outside the White House on Saturday evening when a burst of gunfire rang out. Footage shows her snapping her head toward the sound, visibly confused. Twice she asked: “What is that?”
Police said that Nasire Best, a 21-year-old Maryland resident, opened fire near a White House security checkpoint before Secret Service agents returned fire. He was later pronounced dead, and one bystander was also hospitalized. It was the third shooting near President Donald Trump in recent weeks.
Tsirkin’s reaction to the chaos spread like wildfire online, as users began inserting her stunned expression into a wide range of disaster-filled or just flat-out odd clips.
Her likeness cropped up in footage of the Hindenburg explosion, a nuclear blast, Trump mimicking a transgender weightlifter and Stephen Colbert dancing alongside performers dressed as Covid vaccines.
In one AI-generated clip, a giant Barron Trump roams the White House grounds behind her, his footsteps shaking the earth as she looks on in confusion. Another AI-generated video — which garnered over 600,000 views — depicts the reporter reluctantly joining Secretary of State Marco Rubio on an Oval Office couch, a scene that has repeatedly become fodder for memes.
Other users compared Tsirkin to the viral “Side Eying Chloe” meme, in which a young girl appears concerned while sitting in a car seat.
Tsirkin, a graduate of Rutgers University and former MS NOW producer, quickly offered additional detail on the dramatic and deadly scene.
“My cameraman, John, and I were getting ready to tape something on Iran for Nightly News when what sounded like 20-30 loud booms rang out very close by,” she wrote on Instagram.
She said it was the second time in a month she had encountered a similar scare, referring to the April 25 shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, when a California man opened fire near a magnetometer.
“So we knew very recently what gunshots sounded like,” Tsirkin told NBC News on Sunday. “My cameraman…and I heard 20 to 30 loud booms rang out so fast and concurrent that for a second [the cameraman] looked at me and said ‘Are those fireworks?’ I immediately was looking around to see what the Secret Service agents were doing because, of course, we are journalists; our job is to report.”
“They did not seem alarmed until those gunshots stopped,” she continued. “I peeked my head again out of this tent we’re standing in. I saw a Secret Service agent run out of a security checkpoint with a gun drawn telling us to run inside the press briefing room in the White House…It was a very stressful situation certainly for White House officials, who unfortunately are used to these kinds of situations happening around or near the president.”
Also on Sunday, Tsirkin addressed her sudden emergence as a social media meme, leaning into the moment with humor while promoting her reporting.
“I'm glad I could take one for the team with @nbcsnl on summer break,” she wrote on X, referring to Saturday Night Live being on a hiatus. “Thanks for the memes, internet! Hope you'll stick around for the reporting.”
She wasn’t the only reporter whose reaction to the shooting went viral.
ABC News senior White House correspondent Selina Wang was midway through a report outside the White House when she was forced to ducked for cover as gunshots rang out.
