Trump declines to vow not to 'overthrow the government' in a second term: report
Donald Trump has reportedly refused to sign a traditional ballot-access oath in Illinois. The oath requires the candidate to vow not to overthrow the government.
Trump, who earlier on Saturday mocked the suggestion that he would be a "dictator" if given another chance in the White House office, side-stepped "a decades-old, Illinois ballot-access tradition in which candidates pledge not to 'advocate the overthrow of the government,'" Chicago Sun Times reported on Saturday.
Joe Biden's campaign has already weighed in on the development, the outlet reported.
"For the entirety of our nation’s history, presidents have put their hand on the Bible and sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States — and Donald Trump can’t bring himself to sign a piece of paper saying he won’t attempt a coup to overthrow our government,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said, according to the Sun Times. “We know he’s deadly serious because three years ago today he tried and failed to do exactly that."
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The report continues:
"Biden’s statement came in response to a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times report published earlier Saturday that Trump didn’t sign the voluntary loyalty oath as part of his package of ballot-access paperwork submitted Thursday to the Illinois State Board of Elections," according to the new article. "That omission — days before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection in which Trump has been charged — marked a departure from 2016 and 2020, when Trump signed the oath."
The report also states that, "under Illinois law, presidential candidates wanting to be on the March 19 primary ballot had to turn in nominating petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections on Thursday or Friday. Though no longer mandatory, the loyalty oath has long been part of that process."