Republicans aren’t playing nice anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday morning Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee issued a threat to Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida if the U.S. ally doesn’t release Navy Lt.\u00a0Ridge Alkonis, who is currently serving a 3-year prison sentence, by the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Lee promised to mobilize his colleagues and the American public to reevaluate the United States\u2019 relationship with Japan unless Alkonis is released in a lengthy thread on Twitter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve made your point poorly and counterproductively, but whatever\u2014it\u2019s time to bring your standoff to an end,\u201d continued Lee, before observing that Japan has enjoyed the twin luxuries of a \u201creally good security arrangement\u201d with the U.S. and \u201cnot having that arrangement discussed or seriously questioned in Congress for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s about to change,\u201d promised Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you transfer Lt. Alkonis back to the U.S. before midnight on February 28, 2023, we will do our best to forget that this whole thing never happened. It will be hard, but we will try\u201d the Senator continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If, however, he’s not on U.S. soil by then, many of us will work equally hard to make sure America knows (1) what a good security arrangement you have with the U.S., (2) what you did to one of the best and brightest our military has to offer, and (3) what we should do about it,” Sen. Lee warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n