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Nina Totenberg Approaches Arnold Schwarzenegger refers to a moment when NPR reporter Nina Totenberg directly approached Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as he spoke to reporters outside of the Supreme Court after the court discussed gerrymandering cases in North Carolina and Maryland. The brazen attitude with which Totenberg appeared to approach Schwarzenegger was celebrated by onlookers as an amusing moment and good reporting.

Origin

On March 26th, 2019, Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to reporters after the Supreme Court presented oral arguments on gerrymandering cases in North Carolina and Maryland (shown below).^[1]

During the speech, he was directly approached by longtime NPR Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg while other members of the press stood in a semicircle at a distance. A GIF of the moment was posted by Twitter user @marysdesk (shown below).

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After the moment, Twitter users joked about Totenberg's gumption. Many used jokes comparing Totenberg to the Terminator, an iconic Schwarzenegger character. For example, user @scottdetrow twisted a Terminator quote to fit Totenberg, gaining over 310 retweets and 2,300 likes (shown below, left). User @maggiepenman tweeted calling her "The Totenator" (shown below, right).

Comedian @natashavaynblat made a video in which she parodied the moment and posted it to Twitter (shown below).

Both Schwarzenegger and Totenberg joked about the popularity of the moment. Schwarzenegger said he was proud to be her "co-star," gaining over 620 retweets and 4,800 likes (shown below, left). Totenberg said she was "happy to be the Totenator to the Terminator," gaining over 100 retweets and 1,400 likes (shown below, right). The jokes were covered by Washington Post^[1] and Twitter Moments.^[2]

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