Joe Exotic Says His Presidential Bid Is “Far From Over”

(NewsSpace.com) – With less than six months to go until the presidential election, the main candidates are pretty much locked in. President Joe Biden will likely once again face off against his predecessor, Donald Trump. However, there are a few third parties with an eye on the Oval Office, too. One of those is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but Joe Exotic says not to count him out just yet.

Joseph Allen Maldonado, Joe Exotic, or “Tiger King,” as he’s better known to the public, announced his presidential campaign from jail in March 2023. While he made media headlines for a bit afterward, it’s been mostly quiet on the front since. However, in early May, his name surfaced once again after the media uncovered a termination report with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The report, obtained by Raw Story, noted that Maldonado’s campaign only raised $16,000, and of that, only $1,400 remained. That would seemingly indicate that he is out of the race since a termination report indicates the campaign is no longer receiving or spending significant amounts of money. But that’s not so, according to him.

Maldonado sent a voice message to Newsweek, in which he said his bid for the presidency was “very far from over.” He blamed his being in prison—he was convicted of hiring hitmen to kill animal rescue activist Carol Baskin—for the miscommunications. In his message, he said people “want to help long enough to make a name for themselves, and then they want to quit.”

The inmate then placed immediate blame on his treasurer, whom he says made a name for herself at his expense and now, she’s running for a city office, so she quit on Maldonado. In doing so, he “completely canceled [his] committee” by completing the wrong form. He assures Americans that he has people working on that matter right now and he’s “not giving up.”