Joe Exotic got Twitter very excited Friday when a tweet from the Tiger King icon’s Twitter account weighed in on the Titan submersible tragedy.
After U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw became one of many to weigh in on the submarine situation, @joe_exotic told him, essentially, to stuff it: “Quit looking for someone to blame,” the account tweeted.
“They built it, got in it and took that risk, launched it and if it imploded no one could have done anything. Hats off to the @USCG and everyone who searched for it. Maybe God just don’t want us at the bottom of the ocean to screw with things.”
Joe Exotic was widely praised for his reply. “Never knew that Joe Exotic was the voice of reason we all needed when it comes to this ordeal,” went a typical response.
There was just one problem: “Federal inmates do not have access to social media while incarcerated,” emailed a representative for Federal Medical Center Fort Worth, where Joe Exotic, aka Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is presently serving a lengthy prison sentence.
We hate to narc, but one of two things is clearly happening.
One, Joe Exotic has snuck in a phone. Or two, someone is tweeting under his name, and borrowing some of his tiger clout.
DMs to @joe_exotic were not immediately answered Friday. Nor were emails to Joe Exotic’s attorney, or his email address listed on IMDbPro.
Where Is Joe Exotic Now?
Joe Exotic was sentenced to prison in January 2020 after a federal jury convicted him of two counts of murder-for-hire, eight counts of violating the Lacey Act for falsifying wildlife records, and nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act. He was accused of putting out a hit on his nemesis, Carole Baskin. Exotic argues, however, that he was framed for the killing.
Though he was sentenced to 22 years behind bar, Bureau of Prisons records, which you can access by typing in “Joseph Maldonado-Passage” here, currently list his release date as 2035.
Exotic’s time behind bars haven’t kept him — or perhaps someone operating his Twitter feed on his behalf — from announcing that he is running for president in 2024. The way things are going, he may not be the only candidate who ends up behind bars.
Though whomever is running the Joe Exotic twitter account didn’t reply to our DMs, they did continue actively tweeting Friday afternoon, writing at one point: “You LGBTQ people in todays [sic] movement need to clean up your act, dress appropriate, act civilized and be respectful and you would gain so much more respect then doing this s— in public and thinking your [sic] cute,” went one tweet. “As a gay man I am ashamed of those of you who represent my life style. Get your s— together.”
This tweet was substantially less popular than the one about the submersible, but don’t blame Joe Exotic: He may not have written it.
Maldano-Passage-Exotic was previously held at the Grady County jail in Chickasha, Okla., which makes several appearances in Tiger King, but was moved to the medical facility in Texas during the Covid pandemic, likely due to a history of health problems. Prison officials said during the surges in the virus that they were weighing the possibility of releasing some inmates to minimize the potential harm of Covid, but the Tiger King icon was not ultimately released.
Though inmates aren’t allowed to tweet, they are allowed to call or email. Hit us up, Joe.
Main image: The mug shot of Tiger King king Joe Exotic.
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