On the September 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, radio host Mark Williams asserted that “people have made up their minds ... that if we vote Democrat, that just hastens the day we disappear in a nuclear holocaust,” and that “re-arguing and re-arguing and re-arguing about how [U.S. soldiers] got [to Iraq] is not only pointless but is going to get them killed.” Williams also baselessly claimed that “people” were receiving a “reward” for leaking parts of an April National Intelligence Estimate that found that the war in Iraq is fueling global terrorism. Williams then asked: “How many new Lexuses are driving around Capitol Hill as a result of this one?”

As Media Matters for America has noted, on the August 22, 2005, edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Williams “re-argu[ed]” the reason why U.S. troops are in Iraq. Responding to FBI whistleblower and Minnesota Democratic congressional candidate Colleen Rowley's statement that the “weapons of mass destruction arguments” used to promote the Iraq war “were very misleading, false and deceptive,” Williams said that Rowley should “tell [that to] the 300,000 victims of Saddam's chemical weapons.” But the CIA's Iraq Survey Group concluded that, at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, Saddam Hussein did not possess chemical weapons stockpiles -- contrary to claims made by the administration to build support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

From the September 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:

TUCKER CARLSON (host): Let me just apologize -- by the way, you can probably hear the noise in the background. [Actor] Erik Estrada -- I'm in Los Angeles -- has pulled up his motorcycle right outside our camera position, is revving the engine; it's very annoying and I -- I'm trying to get him to stop, but he won't.

Mark, I'm wondering though, I mean, [Congressional Quarterly columnist] A.B. [Stoddard] has, I think, a very smart point that people have kind of chosen sides on Iraq -- but doesn't this get to the core of the Bush administration's appeal? People are voting for Bush because, as A.B. said, and I think she's right, they're afraid. They think Republicans will protect them. If it -- Bush's own government is saying, “Actually, you're making it more dangerous for us.” Doesn't that hurt him?

WILLIAMS: Well, Tucker, isn't it patently absurd to -- to -- to say something like that and -- and pull that one line out of this report? I mean, that's like saying police cause crime. Because when you go after criminals, the criminals adjust their tactics. Anybody who thinks that you fight a war and the other side is going to go, “Oh, sorry, you're here, I'll give up,” they're out of their minds.

When we see the whole report, we'll know what's in there, and we'll know that it all makes perfect sense. We went after the bad guys. The bad guys come back at us, we have to go around and kill them. And -- and, you're right, though, that people have made up their minds. They know that if we vote Democrat, that just hastens the day we disappear in a nuclear holocaust. People have made up their mind about Iraq. They know that we have 140,000, 130,000 men and women there now. They're to be supported -- and that re-arguing and re-arguing and re-arguing how they got there is not only pointless but is going to get them killed.

CARLSON: But -- you know, you may be right in some sense, but this is not just partisan bickering here. I mean, the administration is finding -- well, there is this kind of left-wing element within the CIA and NSA [National Security Agency] and maybe the Defense Intelligence Agency and other parts of the government, and they are kind of trying to torpedo our efforts in Iraq.

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

CARLSON: But these are still people who work for the president. They're executive branch employees. They're not DNC [Democratic National Committee] staffers. I mean, these are people who work for the U.S. government.

STODDARD: But Tucker --

WILLIAMS: There's no -- you know, there's no --

STODDARD: But Tucker --

WILLIAMS: There's no litmus test for ideological purity or loyalty to the man who happens to hold the office to work in the executive branch.

CARLSON: No, I know, but they're harder to dismiss, are they not?

WILLIAMS: Well, yeah, but you got people in a political season plucking individual pieces out of a classified report, feeding it their friends in the media for who knows what reward. How many new Lexuses are driving around Capitol Hill as a result of this one?

CARLSON: Oh, come on. A.B., did you get a new Lexus?

WILLIAMS: I mean, come on, that's the way it's done, you know, Tucker.