During Wednesday’s White House coronavirus task force press conference, a reporter asked President Donald Trump an unusual question about a popular Netflix show.
“So one of the biggest hits during the coronavirus, aside from these briefings, has been a show on Netflix called Tiger King, and the man who’s the star of this, who’s a former zoo owner, who’s serving a 22 year prison sentence, he’s asking you for a pardon saying he was unfairly convicted,” the reporter said. “Your son yesterday jokingly said that he was going to advocate for it. And I was wondering if you’d seen the shpow and if you had any thoughts on pardoning Joe Exotic?”
“Which son,” President Trump asked, quipping, “Must be Don.”
When told it was in fact Don Jr. who had made the remarks, Trump smiled and said, “I had a feeling it was. ”
“I don’t know. I know nothing about him. He has 22 years for what, what did he do?” Trump asked.
President Trump says he will "take a look" at pardoning Tiger King star Joe Exotic. pic.twitter.com/uc9UmCbIJm
— National File (@NationalFile) April 8, 2020
“He allegedly hired someone to murder an animal rights activist, but he said that he didn’t do that-” the reporter replied, before Trump interjected, “Do you think he did it? Are you on his side? Are you recommending a pardon?”
The reporter laughed and replied in the negative.
“You know you’re not allowed to do that, you’d be criticized by these – would you recommend a pardon?” Trump appeared to ask Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Upon receiving the response, “I’m not weighing in on Tiger King, I do like Joe Exotic,” Trump smiled and said, “I’ll take a look. Is it Joe Exotic, that’s Joe Exotic.”
The full video of the exchange can be seen below.
