Donald Trump’s press conferences are notoriously messy, but sometimes they yield some pretty hilarious gems that make the pain of listening to his lies and ranting almost worth it. Case in point? His Wednesday briefing in which he was asked about potentially pardoning Tiger King‘s Joe Exotic. Trump’s answer? He’ll “look into it.” Amazing!
- Joe Exotic is serving 22 years in prison. Lest we forget, Joe Exotic was charged with conspiracy to murder Carole Baskin as well as 17 federal counts of animal abuse. He’s no national hero and as ridiculous as he was in Tiger King, he deserves to be behind bars.
- Donald Trump Jr. started the Joe Exotic talk. In an interview with SiriusXM, Trump Jr. expressed his concerns that Joe Exotic’s prison sentence was a bit harsh. Keep in mind that he did watch Tiger King, he just couldn’t seem to understand what Exotic had done wrong. “Now, I don’t even know exactly what he was charged with…I watched the show, but it was like, I don’t know exactly what he was guilty of or wasn’t,” Trump Jr. said. “It doesn’t seem like he was totally innocent of anything. But when they’re saying, ‘We’re putting this guy away for 30 years,’ I’m saying that seems sort of aggressive.” Yikes.
- Steven Nelson from the New York Post is the man to thank here. Because of Donald Jr.’s comments, Nelson used the press briefing on April 8 to ask Donald Trump Sr. what he thought of his son’s comments and that’s when the magic began. And boy, was it something else.
- Trump has never watched Tiger King. Donald Trump seemed to be in an uncharacteristically exuberant upon hearing the question, engaging in a little back and forth with Nelson and jokingly telling him that as a journalist, he can’t recommend a pardon. Trump also asked Nelson if he believed that Joe Exotic was innocent before saying he’ll “take a look” at the idea of a pardon.
- I don’t think Joe Exotic should hold his breath. While Donald Trump did indeed say that he’d entertain the idea of a pardon, it seems clear from watching the video that he was being a bit flippant and didn’t take the question seriously. The fact that he even engaged with it is miracle enough, but hey, he probably appreciated playing a bit of softball for once.
