Meghan McCain has joined the legions of people who’ve binged the Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness while self-isolating. She also considers herself a fan of the show’s focus, Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic. While he’s been enjoying his newfound fame, Exotic is currently serving a 22-year sentence on 17 federal charges of animal abuse and two counts of murder-for-hire.
However, McCain said that she’d considered signing the petition circulating calling for President Donald Trump to pardon him. “He has committed a lot of crimes and he is definitely ethically nebulous, but he’s sort of this folk hero to a lot of people and I’m one of the people that’s, like, fallen in love with him,” McCain said on Thursday’s episode of The View. “I actually considered signing a petition to have President Trump pardon him but that just must be out of how obscenely bored I am in my house right now.” She went on to add that she did not, in fact, sign the petition.
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Exotic himself has made a similar request of the president, asking him to excuse all of the 19 charges that he was found guilty of got tagged to his name. He’s also filed a $94 million dollar lawsuit against the US Fish and Wildlife Service, his former business partner Jeff Lowe as well as James Garretson, a confidential informant for the prosecution.
“This lawsuit has been filed in the name of justice, The Trump Administration must be made aware of the overreach, perjury, abuse of power and the failure to uphold the oath of their position which is truth and justice for all,” read a statement he released on March 27. “I have been illegally charged with these crimes and the Trump Administration, the United States Department of Interior along with the Federal Wildlife service must be held accountable for what they have done to me, my parents and my family, along with my animals.”
Currently, Exotic is reportedly in quarantine after a prison transfer from a country jail to a federal facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Due to his isolation, which has become standard practice for prisoner transfers amid the coronavirus outbreak, he’s been unable to make any contact without the outside world until it’s lifted.
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on ABC. Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is available to stream on Netflix.
