Pentagon says it was 'a fat finger mistake' when Biden's defense secretary retweeted a screenshot from one of Tucker Carlson's pro-Putin monologues

• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin retweeted a screenshot from Tucker Carlson's show on Monday.
• The Pentagon quickly clarified that it was the result of "a fat finger mistake."

After Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin retweeted a screenshot from one of Tucker Carlson's pre-invasion monologues sympathetic to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Pentagon's press secretary said it was an accident.

"It was a fat finger mistake by one of our social media guys," Jon Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told Politico's Alex Ward. "He undid it immediately."

The screenshot showed Carlson arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no intentions of war, instead simply seeking to "keep his western border secure."

Carlson has since changed his tune, jettisoning his mocking of the Ukrainian government and defense of Putin for a more simple condemnation.

"He is to blame for what we're seeing tonight," Carlson said of the dictator in his opening monologue Thursday night.

"Again, what Russia has done is awful, but we can make it worse," he said later in the show.

Ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week, Carlson frequently argued that Putin was being unfairly characterized by mainstream media outlets and Democratic lawmakers.

"Since the day that Donald Trump became president, Democrats in Washington have told you you have a patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin," Carlson said on his show February 22.

Carlson was highly dismissive of the likelihood of an invasion. In the same monologue, he mockingly asked whether Putin is the real enemy compared to China, drug cartels, and American teachers.

"What is this really about?" Carlson said. "Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist?

"Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?" he continued. "Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs?"