Kamala Harris reportedly duped by Russian pranksters posing as Greta Thunberg and her father
By Natalie Musumeci
New York Post
August 21, 2020
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was reportedly
duped into a phone call with a pair of infamous Russian pranksters who
posed as teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg offering up dirt on
President Trump.
The hoax call between the California senator and comedians Vladimir
“Vovan” Kuznetsov and Alexey “Lexus” Stolyarov happened after Harris
dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in December, The Sun reported Friday.
Audio of the three-minute and 38-second call was published by the
news outlet — and in it Harris is heard greeting “Greta” and telling
her, “Congratulations on all your leadership.”
“I’m so inspired by your courage and your voice,” Harris tells the
fake, who she believes to be Thunberg, according to the audio recording.
At one point during the call, the faux Thunberg tells Harris that she
is “terrified” of “what Trump is doing,” and explains that she “cannot
sleep or eat when I see him on TV.”
“Greta” then says she had “nightmares” about “that terrible meeting” at the United Nations headquarters in September.
“I saw him [Trump] in the corridor and shouted to him to sign the
Paris climate agreement. He came over and he said softly, ‘You will
never achieve the goal,’” the fraudster tells Harris.
Harris interjects, “No, but Greta, do not be discouraged. You have
the ability to see what is possible in a way that many do not and there
will be people who are going to work against progress.
“That is always the case — always in history there have been people
who work against progress,” Harris said. “Listen, nothing that has been
about progress came without a fight. That is the nature of it.”
The prankster then says, “But it is very sick to behave like that — I mean President Trump.”
“Yes,” Harris replied. “And it is similar to previous times in
history when some people could not imagine how things can be different
and then leaders did imagine and could see and lead. You have been a
great leader — do not be deterred.”
One of the jokesters posing as Thunberg’s father, Svante, on the call
tells Harris that the faux teen “has a recorder always with her” and
that it picked up the bogus interaction with Trump.
“It was on Greta’s recorder. If you would like to get it, we can provide it,” the man says.
The fake Greta chimes in, “Maybe this recording can help you,” to which Harris responds: “Thank you. That would be wonderful.”
“I can testify against this terrible man,” the trickster tells Harris, who replied, “Yes, definitely, thank you so much.”
Before Harris moved to end the call, she said an aide “will follow up
with you and we will stay in touch and work together. I look forward to
working with you.”
The man then told Harris that they were in Canada and would be in the US soon.
“Oh good, we should make a plan then. I would like that,” Harris said.
During an earlier point in the call, the fake Greta asked Harris what
the “best way” to “support” Harris in her campaign would be.
“The best way to do it would be to talk about my climate plan,” Harris said.
This week Harris was formally nominated as Joe Biden’s running mate at the Democratic National Convention.
A Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Post regarding the prank call.
The pair of Russian jokesters behind the hoax have previously duped Prince Harry and Sen. Bernie Sanders by posing as Thunberg.
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