--- title: A U.S. Senator Just Invoked the Popular 'This Is Fine' Meme description: Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina invoked the "This Is Fine" meme during comments about Russian meddling in U.S. elections. canonical: https://time.com/5355468/this-is-fine-senator/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-01T18:14:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:07.401Z og:title: A U.S. Senator Just Invoked the Popular 'This Is Fine' Meme og:description: Sen. Richard Burr of NC referred to the meme while sharing comments on Russia og:url: https://time.com/5355468/this-is-fine-senator/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A U.S. Senator Just Invoked the Popular 'This Is Fine' Meme twitter:description: Sen. Richard Burr of NC referred to the meme while sharing comments on Russia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A U.S. Senator Just Invoked the Popular 'This Is Fine' Meme > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 1, 2018 6:14 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 1, 2018 6:14 PM UTC Now we know: Sen. [Richard Burr](http://time.com/4803424/senator-richard-burr-house-health-care-plan-ahca/) of North Carolina may spend his days advocating for the people of his state, but he clearly has also been hanging out on the internet in his spare time. During comments shared Wednesday, Burr — the Republican Chairman of the [Senate Intelligence Committee](http://time.com/4970374/donald-trump-twitter-fake-news/) — referenced a popular [viral meme](http://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/), in turn himself becoming something of a meme. “Some feel that we as a society are sitting in a burning room, calmly drinking a cup of coffee, telling ourselves ‘this is fine,'” Burr said. “That’s not fine. And that’s not the case. We should no longer be talking about if the Russians attempted to interfere with American society. They’ve been doing it since the days of the Soviet Union, and they’re still doing it today.” The meme he so accurately illustrated has been circulating online for a while, and features a cartoon dog chilling at a table while flames lick his surroundings; it was originally part of a comic designed by [artist KC Green](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/kc-green) that dates back to 2013\. It’s often invoked, as the “This Is Fine” meme, when people are trying to express their ability to ignore or stay calm in the midst of chaos. Burr was using it to reference the current situation regarding the investigation into [Russian meddling](http://time.com/5341137/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-russian-meddling-correction/) in U.S. elections. > [](https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1024689044419047425) > [](https://twitter.com/Eeth4Change/status/1024689582145716224) > [](https://twitter.com/tumorhead/status/1024712306712825866) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5355468/this-is-fine-senator/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5355468/this-is-fine-senator/"},"headline":"A U.S. Senator Just Invoked the Popular 'This Is Fine' Meme","datePublished":"2018-08-01T18:14:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:07.401Z","description":"When viral memes and politics collide","url":"https://time.com/5355468/this-is-fine-senator/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5355468/this-is-fine-senator/","name":"A U.S. Senator Just Invoked the Popular 'This Is Fine' Meme"}}]}] ```