Journalists from ABC and CBS eagerly raced over to Iran to toss softballs to a top government official. They also wondered when the country will strike back at the United States. Good Morning America’s Martha Raddatz on Tuesday highlighted the “hundreds of thousands of mourners” “paying their respects” to the dead terrorist, Qasem Soleimani.

Over on CBS This Morning, Elizabeth Palmer talked to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. He declared the country would get revenge: “We will do it not in a cowardly way, but in a clear and a proportionate way.” Palmer wondered, “When?”

She didn’t exactly grill Zarif, making him a victim at one point: “Can you confirm that you were denied a visa to travel to speak at the United Nations this week?” The journalist insisted she “pressed” the Iranian, but viewers didn’t see that. Instead, they got a summary:

He insisted that any attacks would be on legitimate targets. I pressed him. I said, "What do you mean by that?" He told me to consult the law of war, the Geneva Convention. Legitimate targets are defined as military targets specifically or infrastructure that helps the military.

Over on Good Morning America, Raddatz offered non-judgmental details on the coming attack, asking if the Iranians will take credit for it:

MARTHA RADDATZ: There are reports that your Supreme Leader said it must be a direct proportional response carried out in the open. Does that mean Iran will acknowledge — JAVAD ZARIF: Once we do it? Yes, we will. We don't — we don't carry cowardly acts of terror like the United States.

She also hyped the “massive crowds” mourning the terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans:

Hundreds of thousands of mourners have been taking to the streets as Soleimani is finally laid to rest. This image from space capturing the massive crowds paying their respects to Soleimani, vowing revenge against the U.S.

On Monday, Raddatz was moved by the “powerful,” “profound” mourners of Soleimani, people chanting “death to America.”

This isn’t new though. As MRC President Brent Bozell wrote in 2006, now-disgraced ex-anchor Dan Rather traveled to speak with Saddam Hussein before both conflicts with Iraq:

Rather secured two interviews with Saddam Hussein, both on the verge of his wars with the United States, one with 1990, one in 2003. In both of these interviews, Rather treated Saddam with extreme deference, like a world statesman. He asked in 1990 if Saddam thought Kuwait was "Vietnam in the sand for the United States." He sounded in 2003 like he and Saddam were on an airstrip in Casablanca: "Given the sober moment and the danger at hand, what are the chances this is the last time you and I will see each other?" Rather gained the access, and wasted it on his own vanity.

Transcripts of the CBS and ABC segment are below: