Joseph Maldonado, known by his friends and the nation by the Tiger King Joe Exotic, filed to appear on his first ballot against President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary
Joseph Maldonado, known by his friends and the nation by the Tiger King Joe Exotic, filed to appear on his first ballot against President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary.
Exotic, a 60-year-old former private zoo owner, sent a $500 check on June 12 to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office in order to appear on the Centennial State’s Super Tuesday ballot.
Exotic is campaigning from prison after being sentenced to 22 years in January 2020. He was found guilty in April 2019 on two counts of hiring someone to murder Carole Baskin in Florida, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act by falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act by killing five tigers and selling tigers across state lines. Exotic and Baskin had been feuding since 2009 when Baskin fought to end commercial tiger cub petting. This put a damper on Exotic’s road show shows where he charged people to pet and interact with tiger cubs.
Exotic told the Post in an interview that his goal is to appeal to rural and libertarian-minded Democrats in Colorado. One of his campaign pledges is to require all federal candidates to spend 30 days in prison before taking office.
“I just signed and notarized my papers for the state of Colorado,” Exotic said in an interview from his prison in Fort Worth, Texas. “So, I’m confirmed on that ballot.”
If Exotic were to win, he would be succeeding in multiple firsts. He would be the first openly gay president and the first to be elected from prison. Exotic, who has professed his innocence from the beginning of the pay-for-hire fiasco, said the US needs to buckle down on public corruption and impose a 10-year minimum sentence for the offense.
Exotic even touched on allegations of President Biden accepting a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian businessman while he was vice president.
“If they’re gonna take an oath of office and they’re gonna put us trillions of dollars in debt and they’re going to launder money and take $5 million bribes and all that [redacted], why are they off getting the easy train?” Exotic said.
Exotic also had choice words for Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He said Trump’s recent criminal charges for alleged hush-money payments and mishandling of classified records as “karma” for not pardoning Exotic while Trump was in office.
Trump advisor Jason Miller seems to be amused by Exotic challenging Biden for the Democratic vote. “Democrat primary voters finally have a ‘Joe’ who is well spoken, projects strength and knows what it’s like to run a business,” Miller told The Post in an interview. “The problem is that’s Joe Exotic and not Joe Biden.”
Exotic said he plans on starting in Colorado, then branching out.
“Colorado is going to be my starting ground — for Colorado and Wyoming and New Mexico and Nevada — for [Bureau of Land Management] land issues and rounding up the wild mustangs and the way that Biden is trying to pass a thing now where the tree holders and animal rights people can lease BLM land for 10 years to prevent people from grazing cattle,” said Exotic.
Exotic asked former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to be his running mate. He sent her a certified letter with the offer.
“That’s one thing about politicians — Biden, on the campaign trail, when he was running for president, promised criminal justice reform and he ain’t done [redacted]” Exotic said. “Liz Cheney got on world television during the January 6 hearings and said she would do anything she could to prevent Trump from being in the Oval Office. Well, I’m offering her that position to do anything possible.”
According to Exotic, his campaign has raised over $8,000 for his candidacy — enough to buy t-shirts and bumper stickers.
He said that Casey Jobe, one of his “very smart” friends from prison, will serve as campaign manager once he’s released from prison this month. Jobe has been helping while incarcerated for the past year.
The former zookeeper said that the Netflix’s “Tiger King 2” series proved his innocence of hiring Alan Glover to murder Baskin and has file an appeal for his conviction. He is currently awaiting a decision for a new trial. Prosecutors claim that Exotic showed his own guilt through his rants against Baskin.
If elected, Exotic said he’ll show Trump or Biden the courtesy neither showed him. He’ll pardon either one of them if they are found guilty of their alleged crimes, only after they spend 30 days inside to “get a taste of the system.”
“Karma comes full circle, and I don’t think he’s seen it all yet,” Exotic said of Trump, who discussed Exotic and his request for a pardon, but didn’t grant Exotic one.
Even though Exotic is in prison, that fact alone won’t stop him from running for president. There is no law that says a candidate cannot run for US president while incarcerated.
According to www.whitehouse.gov, there are only three qualifications a possible presidential candidate must meet. The President must be at least 35 years of age, be a natural born citizen, and must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years.