Steel City Republicans started debate night with confident laughs and ended with laments and even silence after watching former President Donald Trump’s performance against Vice President Kamala Harris in their first face-off.
Steel City Republicans started debate night with confident laughs and ended with laments and even silence after watching former President Donald Trump’s performance against Vice President Kamala Harris in their first face-off.
“I don’t think either side did stellar,” Erin Koper told The Post, adding Harris “did better than my expectation” and “found her comfort zone.”
“I heard people calling it more of a wash,” said Sam DeMarco, Allegheny County GOP chair and county councilman.
“I felt it was more of a loss.”
The Allegheny County GOP squeezed 120 swing-state Republicans and Trump supporters Tuesday night into the second floor of Steel Mill Saloon overlooking the Ohio River.
It expected a resounding victory for Trump.
It didn’t get it.
DeMarco cited numerous “lost opportunities” Trump had to hold Harris to account.
On the border and immigration, “he could have put her away,” he told The Post.
“He could have ended her campaign tonight. And he didn’t,” DeMarco declared.
He said Trump was “overconfident.”
Ken Roberts, 40, in sales and a blue blazer, noticed another “missed opportunity.”
He wished ABC or Trump had asked Harris, “How long did you know the president was incapacitated?”
He didn’t think the debate would move the election much in Harris’ favor and stuck to his initial prediction that it’s “Trump’s race to lose.
