Pennsylvania Gov Shapiro pushes for clarity on Iran war rationale from Trump

Comedian Bill Maher pressed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Friday to oppose U.S. intervention in Iran, challenging the Democrat on what he would do if he became commander in chief and learned Iran would soon have nuclear weapons.

“Our chief negotiator said they talked to Iran until the war started. He said the opening salvo of the negotiations: ‘We’re a few weeks away from having 11 bombs,'” Maher said in the latest episode of “Real Time.”

“If you were president and you had this information, would you still do nothing?”

Shapiro immediately rejected the idea.

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“No. What I would do, and what the president of the United States failed to do, was be clear with the American people about what the hell we’re doing here,” he said.

“Was the plan to go after nuclear weapons? By the way, he said the weapons were destroyed… seven months ago. Was the plan to go and do regime change? Who would take over in that case? Boy, I don’t think so.” [Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei] He is better than his father. Was your plan to enter there later, but did you have to because Netanyahu forced you?

“I guess if you’re not clear about why you’re going in, there’s no way of knowing how to get out.”

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Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro makes remarks on July 4, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

Maher also pushed back on the Pennsylvania Democrat’s suggestion that the justification for the war remained unclear.

“We lost 13 American soldiers in a war in which the American people, and most of the global community by the way, had no idea why we were going there,” Shapiro said.

“I think people have an opinion,” Maher countered.

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Attacks on the Iranian leadership, the Revolutionary Guard, Iranian navy ships and oil infrastructure have shaken global markets. (Sasan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

“What was the reason we went in?” Shapiro asked.

“Everything you said: nuclear weapons, regime change, and shifting the deck in the Middle East. Nothing was really going to get better until this regime was gone,” Maher replied, prompting chuckles from the audience.

“But we’ll see what happens.”

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Shapiro stated that he was morally opposed to the Iranian regime’s actions that endangered Americans, stating that he never saw the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a “good person” and that he “did not shed a tear” for the murdered regime members.

“[The ayatollah] For fifty years they chanted ‘Death to America’. These are the people who blow up and kill Americans. “These are not good people,” he said.

“But my point is, if you’re the commander in chief, you have a responsibility to the people you send into harm’s way, you have a responsibility to the American people to explain why you did what you did and how you’re going to recover from it when the mission is accomplished.

“The president has yet to look the American people in the eye and explain this, and that is a failure of leadership.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Shapiro’s statements but did not immediately receive a response.