More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.
In an interview with former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday’s NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer grilled the former cabinet official on wether President Trump was planning to re-invade the Middle East to “steal Iraq’s oil” and commit an “international crime” in the process.
Lauer melodramatically predicted the scenario based on a brief aside from the commander-in-chief during an address to the Central Intelligence Agency on Saturday: “When President Trump went to Langley over the weekend, he made a comment, he said we might get another chance to steal Iraq's oil. He said this, quote, ‘If we kept the oil, we wouldn’t have had ISIS in the first place. The old expression, ‘To the victor belong the spoils.’ We should have kept the oil, but okay, maybe we'll have another chance.’”