Joe Exotic — “Tiger King” star and 2024 US presidential hopeful — declared in a new interview that the Netflix series that made him a household name promoted a “conspiracy” that he tried to kill Carole Baskin.
“Well, first of all, I didn’t do ‘Tiger King,’” Exotic, 60, told TMZ by phone Friday from his Texas prison after the outlet asked if he regretted participating in the docuseries. “Did ‘Tiger King’ ruin my life? Absolutely.”
He continued: “I was filming just a little tiger show in 2016 and 2017, and then Netflix and [‘Tiger King’ director] Eric Goode and all of them turned this into this conspiracy that killed [sic] Carole Baskin to make a show.”
Exotic gained worldwide fame from the 2020 docuseries, which showcased his work and personal life as he looked after exotic big cats at his G.W. Zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.
Exotic was arrested in September 2018, in the midst of filming, and accused of trying to hire two men to murder fellow big cat collector Baskin, who had labeled Exotic an animal abuser.
Prosecutors said he offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent during a December 2017 meeting to perform the killing.
For his part, Exotic alleged Baskin killed and fed her ex-husband, Don Lewis, to her tigers. Lewis was declared legally dead years ago, and Baskin has not been charged in his disappearance.
Exotic said Friday he has since forgiven Baskin, the owner of the Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Tampa, Florida.
Exotic was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to 22 years in prison on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of attempted murder-for-hire.
He was also convicted of wildlife violations tied to killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying records. His sentence was reduced by one year in January 2022, bringing him to a 21-year term.
“Tiger King” started filming in 2014 and featured jail phone calls with Exotic in January 2020.
“Anything you saw me in was real filming that I filmed at the zoo,” Exotic claimed to TMZ. “Everything they filmed after 2018 when I got arrested was all pre-setup, and we have evidence that they were all paid to say what they said.”
The Post has reached out to Netflix for comment.
TMZ reported Exotic, who is allegedly battling bladder cancer, has signed a do-not-resuscitate order.
He claimed Friday he would be “the first presidential candidate to die in federal prison.”
“People may think that this is a joke for me being sick and me running for office from here, but it’s not,” said Exotic, a libertarian.
“I have some extremely major influencers that are my endorsers and online news tabloids and everything else that’s backing me for this.”
Exotic also ran as an independent candidate in the 2016 US presidential election. He received fewer than 1,000 votes nationwide.
He said he walks two miles and does a couple hundred push-ups and several hundred jumping jacks each day as he tries to stay positive while suffering from depression.
He is hoping for a new trial with “new evidence,” and if he was released from prison early he would marry his fiancé, Seth Posey, and embark on a concert tour.