'Tiger King' Joe Exotic speaks out from prison on presidential bid
Joe 'Exotic' Maldonado, 'The Tiger King,' discusses his 2024 presidential campaign and responds to critics in an interview with Lawrence Jones on 'Cross Country.'
"Tiger King" Joe "Exotic" Maldonado discussed his 2024 presidential run from prison and responded to critics who labeled his campaign a "big joke" on "Cross Country."
Despite being incarcerated for a murder-for-hire plot and animal violations, Maldonado told Lawrence Jones he has a chance at taking the White House just as much as any other legal candidate.
"It's my constitutional right to do this. It doesn't matter what people think," Maldonado said in response to critics of his campaign.
He said changes need to be made in America's political and judicial systems.
In this Aug. 28, 2013, file photo, Joseph Maldonado answers a question during an interview at the zoo he runs in Wynnewood, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
"Things have to be changed in our country, in our political system, in our Justice Department, our prison system," he continued. "Somebody's got to start asking some real questions for the people that work their butts off in this country to pay the bills for these politicians to just keep paying this money away."
Jones noted that Maldonado's campaign had already received criticism from the Libertarian Party as well, saying that the party's chair, Angela McArdle, had claimed: "We are not a landing pad for former reality stars and D-list celebrities."
Maldonado responded with his attempt to run for Oklahoma governor in 2018, where he said the Libertarian Party colluded against him.
"When I ran for governor in Oklahoma, the Libertarian Party voted to not let independents vote just so they couldn't vote for me, and I expected that out of the Libertarian Party."
‘TIGER KING' JOE EXOTIC COMPLAINS OF CONDITIONS INSIDE ATLANTA PRISON: ‘BOTTOM OF HELL'
"… I don't see the Libertarian Party in the news, do you?" Maldonado asked.
He also shared his presidential campaign plans, such as reducing America's role on the global stage, arguing that the working people of America shouldn't be responsible for taking care of the rest of the world.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage is currently serving 22 years after being found guilty of participating in a murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin. (Santa Rosa County Jail via AP)
"We have to quit policing the rest of the world, OK, and we have to quit funding everybody else's culture. It's not the working people of America's problem to take care of the rest of the world," Maldonado said. "We're sending billions and billions of dollars to other countries for gender identity — for their wars, for their crap — and we're cutting grandma and grandpa's Social Security in America, and we have homeless vets, and it's just — it's ass-backwards."
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Maldonado noted allegations against Russian President Vladimir Putin, former President Donald Trump and the Bidens.
"What the hell's the difference if it's somebody in prison that sees the system for what it really is?"