NBC News reporter Julie Tsirkin has managed to laugh at herself after her confused reaction to a shooting near a White House security checkpoint launched a deluge of mocking memes.
In footage posted by NBC 10 in Boston on Saturday night, a confused Tsirkin is shown asking “What is that?” twice, as shots were heard in the background. A cameraman can be heard saying, “sounds like fireworks” as Tsirkin looked in the direction of where the noise was coming from.
Her puzzled face and the “what is that?” question was then seized by social media users. The footage went viral as social media users superimposed her reaction onto everything from Stephen Colbert dancing to alien invasions.
On Sunday, Tsirkin acknowledged the meme had taken off, with two of her own social media posts revealing she was in on the joke.
“I’m glad I could take one for the team,” Tsirkin posted on X, referencing comedy show Saturday Night Live being on a season break.
Sharing a photo of herself pointing at her memefied face, she wrote, “Thanks for the memes, internet! Hope you’ll stick around for the reporting,” adding a bowing woman emoji.
Her post has already had over 2.3 million views.
Tsirkin also owned the memes with a video on her TikTok and Instagram, where she films herself, wearing sunglasses and walking, as a string of memes plays behind her.
“If the internet is going to meme my reaction to the second shooting I have witnessed and covered in four weeks, ok!!!,” she wrote. “Hope you’ll stay for the reporting…"
The reporter previously explained on Instagram on Saturday evening that she was getting ready to report from the White House for NBC when her reaction and exchange with the cameraman was recorded as the shots rang out.
“Twice in one month I found myself face to face with a USSS agent yelling at me to get to safety, guns drawn,” Tsirkin wrote. “I find myself thankful, again, that I could run to safety when so many run to danger.”
The gunfire on Saturday evening sent White House reporters sprinting for cover as Secret Service agents scrambled to secure the scene.
Journalists gathered on the White House North Lawn were rushed indoors as the area was rapidly locked down.
Tsirkin also posted on X during the mayhem, saying Secret Service told press on the North Lawn “to run inside the press briefing room.” The 28-year-old then shared a photo from inside the room as the White House was on lockdown.
The Daily Beast has reached out to NBC for comment.
In a statement at the time, the Secret Service said a man approached a security checkpoint near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW shortly after 6 p.m., removed a weapon from his bag, and began firing at officers.
“Secret Service police officers returned fire, striking the suspect, who was transported to an area hospital, where he later died,” the agency said.
ABC News White House correspondent Selina Wang said she was filming a social media video when the shots rang out.
“I was in the middle of taping on my iPhone for a social video from the White House North Lawn when we heard the shots,” Wang wrote on X.
The suspected White House gunman was reportedly no stranger to the Secret Service before he opened fire on Saturday.
Nasire Best, a 21-year-old Maryland man, had been barred from returning to the White House after a previous arrest for entering a restricted area, according to The New York Times.
Best died in hospital after being shot by Secret Service officers, while a bystander who was struck by gunfire remained in serious but stable condition Sunday.
