Delhi, March 16: Joe Exotic, who rose to fame in the 2020 Netflix documentary Tiger King, has announced that he will run for president of the United States in 2024. Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage who goes by the professional name Joe Exotic is currently serving a 21-year federal sentence for multiple charges including animal abuse charges.

Mirror reported that Exotic was convicted of trying to hire two men to kill animal activist Carole Baskin. was also convicted of killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records. Vivek Ramaswamy, Indian-Origin Entrepreneur, to Run For US Presidential Election 2024.

Exotic has set up a campaign website for his presidential bid. In the website a message from Exotic reads that he is running for presidency as he wants to give his potential backers a voice and their freedom back without fear of living in a country that thinks they own them. US Presidential Election 2024: President Joe Biden Declared ‘Healthy, Vigorous and Fit To Successfully Execute Duties of Presidency’ After Medical Exam at Walter Reed Hospital.

The statement further says that “put aside that I am gay, that I am in prison for now, that I used drugs in the past, that I had more then one boyfriend at once and that Carole hates my guts. This all has not a thing to do with me being able to be your voice. The best thing you have going for supporting me is that I am used to fighting my whole life just to get by. I am broke, they have taken everything I ever worked for away, and it's time we take this country back."

Exotic was diagnosed with an aggressive prostate cancer, but revealed in July that he is in remission. However, last months reports had said that the former zookeeper was refusing treatment.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 16, 2023 01:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).