A member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission who derailed its meeting on Monday by pressing the case that anti-Zionism is not antisemitic is fending calls to step down.
“I would rather die than bend the knee to Israel,” Carrie Prejean Boller, a model and Catholic right-wing activist named to the panel in June, tweeted early Wednesday, as fallout over the meeting continued.
The Wall Street Journal, the right-wing activist Laura Loomer, and Catholic and Jewish groups aimed at fighting antisemitism all denounced Prejean Boller’s comments, which represented a dramatic eruption into government proceedings of the kinds of far-right talking points about Jews and Israel that have fueled a recent divide over antisemitic rhetoric within the Republican Party.
During the meeting, which had been convened to discuss antisemitism in the United States, Prejean Boller defended Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson against antisemitism allegations, disputed the idea that blaming Jews for killing Jesus is antisemitic and said her Catholic faith prohibits her from supporting Israel.
“I’m a Catholic, and Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know, so are all Catholics antisemites?” Prejean Boller, who wore a pin depicting the American and Palestinian flags, asked Yeshiva University President Ari Berman, who had been invited to testify.
To Shabbos Kestenbaum, who emerged as an antisemitism activist in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, she asked, “Since we’ve mentioned Israel a total of 17 times, are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?”
Prejean Boller also criticized Seth Dillon, the Christian CEO of the conservative satire site The Babylon Bee, for calling conservative influencers Owens and Carlson antisemitic.
“I would really appreciate it if you would stop calling Candace Owens an antisemite. She’s not an antisemite. She just doesn’t support Zionism, and that really has to stop,” she said. “I don’t know why you keep bringing her up and Tucker.”
The Religious Liberty Commission was created by President Donald Trump in May with the mandate to offer recommendations on expanding religious liberties to the president. Its critics have said it caters largely to the concerns of Christian evangelicals, including an interfaith group that filed a lawsuit against the commission this week accusing it of having “unbalanced and biased viewpoints.”
Prejean Boller, a former Miss California who was stripped of her title in 2009 months after she criticized gay marriage, was named to the commission by Trump in June alongside a host of Christian influencers including the television personality Dr. Phil.
Donald Trump and Carrie Prejean Boller attend a press conference at Trump Tower on May 12, 2009 in New York City. (George Napolitano/FilmMagic)
Prejean Boller, who converted to Catholicism in April, has long been controversial. In 2021, she launched a social media campaign against COVID-19 mask mandates, and has frequently advocated against transgender inclusion in sports and same-sex marriage. In recent months, she has frequently promoted anti-Israel rhetoric and defended Carlson and Owens on her Instagram account, which has 125,000 followers.
Last week, Prejean Boller also promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories about the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a post on Instagram.
Prejean Boller faced pushback during Monday’s meeting, including from Catholic commissioners who disputed her characterization of Catholic doctrine and from the commission’s sole Jewish member, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, of New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel and Tikvah, a politically conservative Jewish think tank.
“The one thing we should be careful about is speaking on behalf of all members of a religious community, even if one is a member of that religious community,” Soloveichik said during the meeting in an apparent rejoinder to Prejean Boller. Soloveichik did not respond to a request for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The commission’s leader, a Republican from Texas, eventually halted her questioning on Monday. But the pushback continued online, where Loomer — a far-right conspiracy theorist who appears to have influenced hiring decisions by Trump and other Republicans — called for her removal.
“Who at the White House selected Carrie Prejean Boller @CarriePrejean1 to sit on the White House Religious Liberties Commission? Her behavior today was disgraceful and she has no place sitting on the committee,” Loomer tweeted. “In fact, she should be removed from the Committee.”
Prejean Boller quickly clapped back.
“Can you even imagine this? a Religious Liberty Commission prepared to fire a commissioner for her Catholic faith? If that happens, it proves their mission was never religious liberty, but a Zionist agenda,” she wrote in a post on X. “I refuse to resign.”
In a post on X, Kestenbaum also called for Prejean Boller’s resignation and criticized her for using the last section of the panel to “to pivot to Israel.”
“I’m shocked that you would abuse the trust of President Trump and his Commission to instead of focusing on how to elevate religious liberties, fixate on a foreign conflict on the Middle East,” he wrote. “If you are not planning on helping young Americans such as myself fight for religious liberties then I encourage you to give your seat for someone who will.”
To him as well, Prejean Boller affirmed that she would not resign from the commission.
“I will not be bullied. I have the religious freedom to refuse support for a government that is bombing civilians and starving families in Gaza, and that does not make me an antisemite. It makes me a pro-life Catholic and a free American who will not surrender religious liberty to political pressure,” she wrote. “Zionist supremacy has no place on an American Religious Liberty commission.”
Some conservative figures threw their support behind Prejean Boller following Monday’s hearing, including former Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wrote in a post on X, “I’m with her.” As a member of Congress, Greene voted against antisemitism legislation that she said rejected “Gospel” that “the Jews” handed Jesus to his executioners.
And Owens, too, has taken up Prejean Boller’s cause. “Zionists are calling for Carrie Prejean to be punished,” she tweeted. “This is because they disagree with the Catholic and Orthodox position, that we do not, as Seth Dillon illuminates, simply ‘worship a Jew’. This is an intentionally-corrupted theological talking point that needs to end.”
Early Wednesday, Prejean Boller tweeted thanks to Owens for “the shoutout tonight.” Her post reached more than 50,000 followers, more than 10 times as many as she had before Monday’s Religious Liberty Commission meeting.
