Tucker Carlson makes wild claim about 'who's really running' Joe Biden's White House

Tucker Carlson claims Satan himself is running the White House because it allowed Ukraine to use landmines and long-range missiles against Russia.

The right-wing pundit gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a friendly interview in February and has made numerous pro-Russian statements during the war.

Carlson's latest attack on Ukrainians defending their homeland from invasion was an accusation that the new weapons would be used to kill civilians.

Perpetuating the right-wing conspiracy theory that President Joe Biden wasn't really in charge, he said he thought Secretary of State Tony Blinken was calling the shots.

'But now I would say Satan because I really think that you've got dark forces in charge,' he said on the Redacted podcast. 

'There's no justification for using anti-personnel mines in this conflict, which can't hope to be solved.

'The only effect of that move is to kill innocents, period. That's it, that's the only effect - and they know that. And so they're doing it anyway because killing is the point. 

'So it's evil. I think we should say that. I don't think it's a matter of defending democracy.'

Biden gave Ukraine permission to fire American-made ATACMS missiles, which have a range of 190 miles, into Russia last week.

Ukraine used some of the weapons to bomb Tula, a city with one of Russia's biggest ammunition production industries about 100 miles south of Moscow.

Biden also approved sending anti-personnel mines to Ukraine to repel Russian invaders inside the country and slow their advance.

They are not allowed to be used near civilians and won't have the same issues as the older landmines still killing people around the world years after conflicts ended.

The mines are 'non-persistent' and become inert after a preset period - they require a battery to detonate, and will not explode once the battery runs out.

Ukraine has used NATO-made anti-tank mines for much of the war, but Biden said he would not give Ukraine anti-personnel mines, until last week's U-turn.

Carlson, who has perpetuated unfounded Russian claims about Ukraine since before the invasion even began, then lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

'The president of Ukraine is not elected. He's a dictator. He literally passed his term and kept serving,' he said.

Zelenskyy's term as president ended on May 20, but as martial law was declared in 2022 when the invasion began, the election wasn't held.

Instead, the Ukrainian parliament voted to delay the election by 90 days several times, most recently putting it off until February 7.

Ukrainian opposition parties largely have not opposed leaving him in power, citing the extreme difficulty of conducting a fair election while under attack and with so many citizens displaced from their homes or under occupation.

The country's laws also allow elections to be suspended during martial law and for the administration to be legitimate during that time. 

'[Ukriane] shut down a Christian denomination — put priests in jail. How many more markers of dictatorship do you need to call it what it is? Which is totalitarian. So everything about it is horrifying,' Carlson continued.

He was likely referring to senior Ukrainian Orthodox cleric Metropolitan Pavlo, who was jailed in July after being under house arrest since April.

Pavlo is charged with inflaming religious hatred and justifying Russia's invasion of Ukraine, crimes under wartime laws.

Ukraine has been cracking down on the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, claiming it is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow. 

The church denies that and says it cut all ties with Moscow last year, but many of its churches have been searched and dozens of clergy have faced charges.

However, the religion has not been 'shut down' or suppressed in any way for ordinary worshippers, and Orthodox is Ukraine's biggest faith.

Carlson went on to claim Western civilization was 'a dying empire' that was 'collapsing demographically' and based on a 'totally pointless' finance-based economy with 'no self-respect at all'.

'There's something about the final days of a dying civilization that causes it to lash out in this orgy of killing for its own sake, it's really the darkest thing I could imagine,' he said.

'The end of an empire is a kind of murder-suicide where the formerly great power kills itself and then takes a lot of people out as it does.'

Russia unilaterally started the war when in invaded Ukraine in February 2022, which has killed at least 12,162 Ukrainian civilians, according to the UN.