‘Tiger King‘ Joe Exotic has given an in-depth jailhouse interview discussing the impending election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Exotic, in the midst of his 21-year murder-for-hire sentence, spoke at length about how the Republican could beat Harris come November, while offering some of his own critiques.
The 55-year-old zookeeper also had some advice for the former president, like dialing back on his trademark name-calling.
Exotic was convicted of two counts of hiring hit men to murder his own critic, wildlife activist Carole Baskin, in 2019. He was also jailed for violating federal conservation laws, following the bust of his illegal big cat petting zoo.
The 2020 Netflix smash hit Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness told the story of Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado, and the spiral that led to his conviction. He now wants a pardon, and a high-ranking government position.
‘ Tiger King ‘ Joe Exotic gave an in-depth jailhouse interview about the impending election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris this week, The former zookeeper is seen here during another interview given in July
In it, he spoke at length about how the Republican could beat Harris come November, while offering some of his own critiques
‘[Trump] has to explain to the people what we can do to better the lives of the American people,’ Exotic told Newsweek from FMC Fort Worth in Texas.
‘We can’t afford gas, we can’t afford rent, we can’t afford food.
‘We have to give back to where the American people can take care of the American people,’ the former Oklahoma zoo owner said.
‘If he would just explain some of this to the American public, he would win on a landslide.’
The convict added how he is hoping to secure a place on Trump’s cabinet should he eke out a win.
To do so, Trump will need to ‘keep his mouth shut [and] get on track,’ he said.
‘Concentrate on explaining to the American people [the value of] drilling our own oil, our gas, and our own coal,’ he told the outlet over the phone.
‘Get back to how we’re going to sustain America without having to pay every other country for the same thing that we can provide here.’
Harris, he said, will ‘never’ get his support. He said of the past three-and-a-half years, ‘We can’t afford gas, we can’t afford rent, we can’t afford food… We have to give back to where the American people can take care of the American people’
The words of advice come a year-and-a-half after Exotic announced his own candidacy for president as a Democrat, before suspending his campaign amid efforts to appeal his conviction.
On July 15, 2021, a U.S. appeals court ruled his sentence for two murder attempts were wrongly treated as separate, reducing it from 22 years to 21.
In a rare interview in July, Exotic – revealing he now has prostate cancer – said he is not satisfied with that outcome, and is seeking an appeal to the entire case.
‘I’m actually appealing my whole case, to overturn my conviction,’ he told News Channel 8 from a prison in Florida at the time, before being transferred to the federal pen in Fort Worth.
Of the past five years, he said: ‘It’s been rough, it really has.’
Speaking to Newsweek, he said he’s also hoping to secure a presidential pardon from the former president, despite already doing so toward the end of his first term.
He also expressed his wish to become the head of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, even though the agency does not allow even regular employees that have felony convictions.
‘I want to be the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service,’ he said. ‘I can save this country several million dollars because it’s over regulated.
The 55-year-old also had some advice for the former president, like dialing back on his trademark name-calling
‘We’re regulating animals that don’t even belong in America,’ he continued, before citing one of the federal laws he himself violated.
‘And the Endangered Species Act is something that I specialize in. I can almost recite it, word for word.’
The Netflix documentary showed him needlessly killing tigers in his Oklahoma zoo, G.W. Zoo, shooting them point blank in their skulls.
Millions worldwide went on to brand him an animal abuser, leading to his conviction on 17 federal charges of animal abuse.
The bulk of the sentence, however, stems from two counts of attempted murder, for the failed plot to kill nemesis and Big Cat Rescue owner Baskin.
The series focused on this and long-running feud between the self-proclaimed animal activist and Exotic, who himself is a flamboyant polygamist and then-owner of a private petting zoo.
It also showed how Baskin’s second husband, multi-millionaire Don Lewis, suddenly vanished without a trace in August 1997, from the Florida wildlife sanctuary the pair co-owned.
The then-59-year-old has never been found, nor has any evidence to suggest he was murdered. That said, cops have said they don’t believe he disappeared on his own.
The infamous 2021 Netflix documentary showed him needlessly killing tigers in his Oklahoma zoo, G.W. Zoo, shooting them point blank in their skulls
The series focused on this and his long-running feud between the self-proclaimed animal activist Carole Baskin, who has stayed away from interviews since the series aired
The zookeeper was jailed for hiring men to murder Baskin and operating his illegal roadside petting zoos in Oklahoma
The zookeeper also said he has prostate cancer and possibly cancer of the lung as well, and for the first time aired his desire for a new attempt at a presidential pardon.
This week, he said Trump’s team ‘know that I would like to be in his cabinet as the director of the Federal Fish and Wildlife [Service]’, and have yet to rebuff his offer.
Citing how he briefly became a police officer in small-town Kansas before setting out on his dubious career as a petting zoo owner, he said ‘I used to be a police chief, so I have law enforcement experience, and I could do the job.
‘And I think I could do the job a whole lot cheaper and a whole lot better for the American people.’
Exotic, meanwhile, has accused Baskin of killing his and feeding him to her own tigers – accusations he maintained a few weeks ago in his filmed phone call.
‘I just wanted her out of my hair and to leave me alone,’ he said about the anti big cat owner activist.
‘I still think that she is bats**t crazy and that she killed her husband.’
The zookeeper was jailed for his hiring of two men to murder Baskin, who brought attention to his illegal roadside petting zoos in Oklahoma.
In his interview with Newsweek, he said the recent furor surrounding Harris will die down as the election – and his potential presidential pardon – inches closer.
‘I think over the next 60 days, the momentum on Harris will die down and people will start seeing and hearing the truth,’ he said.
‘I’m not going to stop talking… I still believe Trump can pull this off if he gets on track, you know, and starts talking about policies and how he’s going to fix the country, instead of all of his name-calling.’
Harris, he added, ‘will never [get his] support.’
