It was TACO Tuesday on CNN’s The Situation Room. CNN and the rest of the liberal media spent much of Monday and Tuesday morning trying to scare the bejeezus out of the American public by ridiculously suggesting President Trump was going to commit “war crimes” and genocide all of the Iranian people. Something that was never going to happen. But the tone changed during The Situation Room when they mocked Trump and suggested he was going to “chicken out” of slaughtering millions of innocent people, even dropping the Democrats’ TACO line, proving that they didn’t believe their own reporting.
“The president is sticking to his very, very tough language right now. Is he painting himself though into a corner? If the Iranians don't accept the concessions that he wants?” co-host Wolf Blitzer asked CNN chief global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.
Dozier started her expert analysis by immediately mocking Trump and jabbing him for how he was preparing to “chicken out.” She praised the Islamic regime and even used the Democrats’ political line that “Trump always chickens out” and said he had a “syndrome”:
This could be a high stakes negotiating tactic to try to get them to blink, but so far they haven't. They've proved consistently that they can take more pain, and they see themselves as gaining in political stature every time they force Trump to bypass one of his deadlines, which we might see tonight. The TACO, Trump always chickens out syndrome.
A little over 24-hours prior, Dozer suggested Trump was going to march America “straight into the territory of war crimes.”
And there it is.
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) April 7, 2026
After the media spent most of yesterday and today suggesting Trump was going to nuke or otherwise genocide Iran, CNN is already suggesting Trump will "chicken out" and drops the "TACO" line:
WOLF BLITZER: The president is sticking to his very, very tough… pic.twitter.com/1JD7EgP92s
Her analysis was immediately followed up by co-host Pamela Brown and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen quipping about Trump’s other “empty threats”:
BROWN: And, Peter, we've seen empty threats before from the president. This seems different, though. And if he doesn't follow through and or doesn't get anything tangible in the negotiations, I mean, what kind of a position would that put the U.S. in this war?
BERGEN: Well, actually, I'm reminded in his first term he said he could he could end the Afghan war in a week, but it would kill 10 million people. So, he's made these kind of very grandiose kind of threats before.
“I mean, in this case, obviously, this, you know, who knows what's going to happen at 8 p.m. tonight? The only person who knows is the commander-in-chief,” Bergen added before predicting Trump was going to find a way to save face:
Um, I presume to if he wants to kind of retain some form of credibility, he's going to have to do something because he's threats have been so over the top. But you know, they could be limited and they could be dressed up as well. The negotiations continue. So the limited strikes and continued negotiations, I mean that wouldn't be surprising.
“Yeah,” Brown agreed.
Being so easily able to pivot from telling viewers that Trump was certainly going to commit war crimes one day to saying he was going to “chicken out” the next, proved that CNN was just spewing pure propaganda to gas light Americans. Efforts that could incite another mentally unstable liberal to violence. Or, was it an effort to goad Trump into committing a genocide?
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Situation Room
April 7, 2026
11:17:12 a.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: The president is sticking to his very, very tough language right now. Is he painting himself though into a corner? If the Iranians don't accept the concessions that he wants?
KIMBERLY DOZIER: This could be a high stakes negotiating tactic to try to get them to blink, but so far they haven't. They've proved consistently that they can take more pain, and they see themselves as gaining in political stature every time they force Trump to bypass one of his deadlines, which we might see tonight. The TACO, Trump always chickens out syndrome.
Or we could see as a gulf official I just spoke to was worried about a massive strike against many targets in Iran that then causes Iran to retaliate against the gulf. So far, they've been doing destructive attacks, but they haven't unleashed the full scope of what gulf officials think they could do.
PAMELA BROWN: And, Peter, we've seen empty threats before from the president. This seems different, though. And if he doesn't follow through and or doesn't get anything tangible in the negotiations, I mean, what kind of a position would that put the U.S. in this war?
PETER BERGEN: Well, actually, I'm reminded in his first term he said he could he could end the Afghan war in a week, but it would kill 10 million people. So, he's made these kind of very grandiose kind of threats before.
I mean, in this case, obviously, this, you know, who knows what's going to happen at 8 p.m. tonight? The only person who knows is the commander-in-chief. Um, I presume to if he wants to kind of retain some form of credibility, he's going to have to do something because he's threats have been so over the top.
But you know, they could be limited and they could be dressed up as well. The negotiations continue. So the limited strikes and continued negotiations, I mean that wouldn't be surprising.
BROWN: Yeah.
