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Oct 25, 2017
7,624
canada
www.politico.com

Lindsey Graham dishes on Trump in hoax calls with Russians

Graham thought he was speaking with Turkey’s minister of defense. Instead, it was a pair of Russian pranksters.

191010-lindsey-graham-ap-773.jpg


when he received a call from a man he thought was Turkey's minister of defense earlier in August, it didn't strike him as unusual. "Thank you so much for calling me, Mr. Minister," Graham said. "I want to make this a win-win, if we can."

But it wasn't the Turkish defense minister at all. Instead, it was Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov, Russian pranksters with suspected ties to the country's intelligence services who go by "Lexus and Vovan." The duo have become notorious in recent years for their cold calls to unwitting, high-profile Western politicians, including Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, leading some to suspect that they've had help from the Kremlin, according to The Guardian.

  • Graham labeled the Kurds a "threat" to Turkey in the call, seemingly contradicting what he has said publicly in recent days.
    [*]Graham also mentions Trump's personal interest in a "Turkish bank case" in the call that appears to refer to a U.S. case involving Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish gold trader and client of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
    [*]But Graham also expressed sympathy for Turkey's "Kurdish problem" and described the Kurds as a "threat."
    [*]"Your YPG Kurdish problem is a big problem," Graham told the pranksters.
    [*]"I told President Trump that Obama made a huge mistake in relying on the YPG Kurds," Graham continued. "Everything I worried about has come true, and now we have to make sure Turkey is protected from this threat in Syria. I'm sympathetic to the YPG problem, and so is the president, quite frankly."
    [*]"I like President Erdogan," Graham told the pranksters. "I think President Trump likes President Erdogan. I think he's a strong man and we need to deal with strong people."

There is a fuck TON more at the link.
 

sangreal

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,890
These calls were a few months ago, to be clear

I clicked all the way through to the original story claiming they are tied to Russian intelligence and it doesn't seem to be based on anything but pure speculation from one of the past victims. Essentially that they "must have, at the very least, a significant helping hand from the Russian security services: it is not so easy to have a call put through to the president of a major nation."
 

Masoyama

Attempted to circumvent a ban with an alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,648
And apparently politico did shady things to publish it right now.
 
Oct 31, 2017
10,032
Was the phone he is using developed by the Helghsat?

I know this is not the most important element here, but there is something about the big red circle
 

RoaminRonin

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,755
Lindsey Graham is a spineless hack, and the day he dies he won't be remembered the same way his buddy McCain will, there will be no nation in mourning, no media pieces on how brave he was. The only good he'll do in this world is when he's dead.
 

Deleted member 31817

Nov 7, 2017
30,876
A Republican is a duplicitous asshole? Well I never
 
Jun 20, 2019
2,638
The Reza Zarrab thing is very... interesting. That's a case that (supposedly) pits US Justice on one hand against Erdogan's self interest on the other. We know Trump has been trying to get charges against Zarrab dropped, but now we know he was trying to get Rex Tillerson to work out a deal in 2017. And this tells us that Lindsay Graham knew about it and was willing to go along with the President undermine a federal investigation.

Why is Trump playing ball?

Why the hell is Graham playing ball on the Zarrab thing? Why does he even know about it?
 

CHC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,246
Is it really this easy to get these morons on the phone?

"Uh yeah this is the uhh.... defense ministry of Turkey? Can we transfer this call to the ehhh.... the Senator?"

"Just one moment."

WTF man why am I not doing this shit?
 

Kor of Memory

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,668
Well, isn't the idea to cause discord in our nation? They don't want one side to win. They want both sides to hate/kill each other.

Conservatives are easy, just feed the hate machines. Liberals are harder, you have to keep feeding us hope and then dissapointing us over and over again before we really feel like the system is irreparable and take matters into our own hands.
 
Oct 31, 2017
12,068
Is it really this easy to get these morons on the phone?

"Uh yeah this is the uhh.... defense ministry of Turkey? Can we transfer this call to the ehhh.... the Senator?"

"Just one moment."

WTF man why am I not doing this shit?

I dunno why but this made me laugh hard. It's just a summary of how weird this is but I dunno, I did lol.
 

ultracal31

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,614
Is it really this easy to get these morons on the phone?

"Uh yeah this is the uhh.... defense ministry of Turkey? Can we transfer this call to the ehhh.... the Senator?"

"Just one moment."

WTF man why am I not doing this shit?

As I recall, didn't someone pranked call their way to Jared?
 

PMS341

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt-account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
6,634
Can't wait for Longmont Potion Castle to get ahold of one of these goons.
 

Atlagev

Member
Oct 27, 2017
686
POLITICO said:
The duo have become notorious in recent years for their cold calls to unwitting, high-profile Western politicians, including Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, leading some to suspect that they've had help from the Kremlin

Oh, abso-fucking-lutely they have.
 

JetmanJay

Member
Nov 1, 2017
3,500
I ...don't understand. Why would Graham talk shit about the need to 'get rid of Kurds' on this phone call, yet openly criticize and deride Trump for being a part of doing that very thing in public?

Unless it's a lovers spat kind of thing between him and the Trump administration? Maybe this is showing us just how far republicans are willing to throw Trump under the bus these days?
 

Joe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,585
And apparently politico did shady things to publish it right now.

Yeah, seems like there's some weird chatter around this story from the various Journalist and Intelligence Community Twitter personalities. Not really sure what to make of it. Gonna take the whole ordeal with a helping of salt until some more clarifying details emerge.
 

TeaberryShark

Member
Feb 8, 2019
832
So what are the odds that these calls leaked by russian intel because of Lindsey's quasi heel turn on trump over the Kurd/Turk issue?

I mean either way it looks bad for Lindsey and he's a piece of shit.