A notorious pair of Russian pranksters who previously prank-called Sens. Mitch McConnell and John McCain Online Cigarettes Store USA duped Sen. Lindsey Graham, and called him posing as the Turkish Defense Minister, according to new reports in GQ Magazine and Politico, the latter of which published audio of the call.
The pranksters, Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, got through to Graham, one of President Donald Newport Pleasure Trump's staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill on foreign policy, in August.
This week, Graham and several other Republicans have broken with Trump over the administration's sudden decision not to interfere in Turkey's ongoing military incursion of Northern Syria, which directly threatens the US-allied Kurdish forces, who were key partners in the fight against ISIS.
The Turkish campaign has so far resulted in the deaths of at least 100 Syrian Democratic Forces fighters.
Over the past few days, Graham has excoriated Trump over his decision to pull US forces out of Northern Syria.Graham said, "this impulsive decision by the president has undone all the gains we've made, thrown the region into further chaos, Iran is licking their chops, and if I'm an ISIS fighter, I've got a second lease on life."
"I hope I'm making myself clear how shortsighted & irresponsible this decision is, in my view," Graham added. "This to Newport 100s Box me is just unnerving to its core...ISIS is not defeated. This is the biggest lie being told by this administration."
Graham has also threatened to levy US sanctions against Turkey over their military operation in Syria, and get Turkey expelled from NATO.