One man runs for president from behind bars: “It’s my constitutional right to do this even from here”

Joe Exotic, known to millions of Americans as the “Tiger King”, is running for president from prison.

The 60-year-old man is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit murder, among other crimes. The murder allegations were well documented in the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King.

But prison, the Fall, lack of access to large exotic animals, and even his nemesis Carol Baskin can’t stop the eccentric outlaw from offering the White House, he said online this week.

Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, officially announced his candidacy in a post on his campaign website.

Maldonado-Passage acknowledged his housing situation in a statement but asked voters to consider his candidacy next November.

“Thank you for your interest in my Campaign,” the statement said. “Yes, I know I’m in federal prison and you might think this is a joke, but it’s not. It’s my constitutional right to do it even from here.”

He continued by attacking the Justice Department as a corrupt institution that unfairly targeted him.

“I was only put here because of corruption in the Justice Department, three felons who were told how to lie under oath to advance this agenda, two corrupt Assistant U.S. Attorneys, two corrupt FBI agents, and one corrupt Federal Wildlife Agent.” He said.

Maldonado-Passage, who is running as a libertarian, cited his past behavior and lifestyle and asked people to ignore it in search of a better America.

He also mentioned Baskin, whose assassination he ordered but was never carried out.

“So put aside that I’m gay, that I’m in jail now, that I’ve used drugs in the past, that I’ve had more [than] one boyfriend at the same time, and that Carol hates me to the core, ”he said.

“All this has nothing to do with the fact that I can be your voice. The best thing you have to support me is that I used to fight all my life just to survive,” he added.

On the political side, Maldonado-Passage intends to run a message about shutting down the IRS and demanding accountability for how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars abroad.

“I am here because I have a worldwide platform to get these politicians to listen to your concerns and mine and give us some answers this time because all they are doing is lying to all of us, taking our hard earned money, calling them taxes, and giving them away. go to foreign countries, and they did not return anything to us,” he said in a statement.

Maldonado-Passage concluded, “I’m broke, they’ve taken everything I’ve ever worked for, and it’s time to take this country back.”

The 60-year-old man is at the Federal Medical Center at Butner Prison in Durham County, North Carolina, according to The Oklahoman.

In 2021, a former Oklahoma zookeeper was diagnosed with prostate cancer.