PHILADELPHIA – When President Donald Trump told the world that “bad things happen in Philadelphia,” it was, in part, a blunt assessment of his party's struggles in the nation's sixth-most populous city.
For decades, Philadelphia has been the cornerstone of Democratic victories in the battleground state — producing Democratic margins so massive that winning statewide has been a longshot for most Republican presidential candidates.But it's a longshot Trump pulled off in 2016 and is trying to repeat again.
His debate stage disdain for the City of Brotherly Love — which quickly inspired memes and T-shirts — underscored his campaign's months-long effort to fight the blue tide that starts in the city.