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Dec 19 • 4 tweets • 4 min read
1/4
 .@robertcobrien is right: if DoD is either unable or unwilling to get the job done, @potus should transfer the case forthwith to the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage affairs (@StateSPEHA), Ambassador Roger Carstens.
2/4
 To qualify per se for action by @StateSPEHA, Alkonis would need to be deemed wrongfully detained under 22 USC 1741. Though he doesn’t qualify per se under that strict legal definition, @potus could—and should—direct @StateSPEHA to lead the effort to #BringRidgeHome.
3/4
 After working on this for 18 months, I have received this input from multiple, reliable sources with inside knowledge: DoD is actively discouraging any aggressive action by State or the WH to get Japan to release Alkonis. That interference must end NOW. Put @StateSPEHA on it!
4/4
 DoD should immediately agree to pay Lt. Alkonis (restoring his promotion and all leave acquired pre-confinement), and then allow Ambassador Carstens to negotiate his speedy return—without interference from @secdef or anyone at DoD. @potus and @StateSPEHA can make this happen!

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More from @BasedMikeLee

Mike Lee Profile picture
Dec 20
I was wrong. The omnibus spending bill, which was finally released less than 48 hours before it’s expected to pass, isn’t 3,000 pages long. It’s 4,155 pages long. appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
This is an act of legislative barbarism.
I don’t yet know how many slimy handouts are in this bill. But here’s a good example of why u hate these things: the bill contains a $200,000 earmark for the Rhode Island AFL-CIO for a “climate Jobs workforce training initiative”at the request of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
Read 5 tweets
Mike Lee Profile picture
Dec 20
1.@SecDef, watch @LelandVittert’s interview with @BrittanyAlkonis. You’ll see that you’ve received bad advice, and that you should (1) grant Alkonis’s Exception to Policy, (2) restore his promotion, pay, and pre-confinement leave, and (3) scramble to secure his immediate return.
2. I stand ready, willing, and eager to applaud you when you do so. You’re a good man, and I know you don’t want to treat Lt. Alkonis this way.
3. If you stay the course and leave the Alkonis family hanging days before Christmas, I think you’ll find the American people rather less than sympathetic to your decision, and that’s putting it really mildly. They’ll be outraged, and I will make sure of it.
Read 7 tweets
Mike Lee Profile picture
Dec 19
Ask your U.S. senators and and representatives today: is it ever a good idea to vote for a 3,000-page bill spending nearly $2 TRILLION that, just three days before the bill is expected to pass, only about four members of Congress have actually seen?
You might also ask them what the risks of passing such a bill might be, especially if it contains more than 7,500 handouts earmarked for special interests that can pay for expensive lobbyists.
It’s not just that members of Congress haven’t seen it; neither have the American people or even the press!
Read 9 tweets
Mike Lee Profile picture
Dec 18
.@SecDef, please don’t stop paying Lt. Ridge Alkonis. You shouldn’t be hanging him and his family out to dry ten days from now.
You need to stand up for him. If you turn your back on him, you’ll be sending a devastating message not only to the Alkonis family, but also to all U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines.
You have the authority to grant his exception to policy under 37 U.S.C. 503. There is not a plausible reading of that statute that would suggest otherwise.
Read 7 tweets
Mike Lee Profile picture
Dec 15
We won’t have a shutdown this week. To remove the threat of a shutdown next week, the Senate should pass the Lee Amendment to the one-week spending bill passed by the House last night.
The Lee Amendment would extend the House-passed, one-week CR to March 3, which would allow members of Congress to consider the yet-to-be-seen, 3,000-page omnibus on its own merits, and without the threat of a Christmas shutdown clouding their judgment.
If those advocating for the omnibus can’t make their case for it without threatening a shutdown on Christmas Eve, one has to wonder what they’re hiding.
Read 9 tweets
Mike Lee Profile picture
Dec 8
Control of the House of Representatives has shifted from one party to the other only FIVE TIMES since 1954. In NONE of those instances has the outgoing Congress passed a comprehensive spending bill after the election. We shouldn’t change that in 2022.
Pelosi and Schumer want to break this precedent. McCarthy doesn’t. McConnell shouldn’t.
Democrats understandably want to pass a big spending bill—to fund the Pelosi-Schumer agenda—before they lose control of the House at noon on January 3rd.
Read 9 tweets

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