Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was pranked by two Russians pretending to be Turkey's minister of defense in an August phone call, his office said on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Graham confirmed to CNN that the South Carolina Republican spoke with Russian pranksters Alexey Stolyarov and Vladimir Kuznetsov in a conversation he thought was with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar. "We have been successful in stopping many efforts to prank Senator Graham and the office, but this one slipped through the cracks," Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop said. "They got him."

According to audio of the call provided to Politico, Graham calls the Kurds a "threat" to Turkey -- a label that appears to contradict his public statements in recent days regarding President Donald Trump's decision to pull American troops out of the way of a Turkish invasion of Syria. The attack has been widely condemned by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for putting American allies, such as the Kurds, in harm's way.

The comments appear at odds with the senator's previous rhetoric on the conflict, including a tweet Wednesday in which he directed followers to "pray for our Kurdish allies who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration."

In a second phone call, a few days after the first, Graham told Stolyarov that he met with Trump and discussed the initial call. Graham relayed the message from Trump that he wants a "better relationship with Turkey." On Monday, Graham blasted Trump over his decision to remove US troops from northern Syria as Turkey plans a military offensive in the region, saying it was "shortsighted and irresponsible." "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. So to those who think ISIS has been defeated you will soon see," Graham said during an interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."