Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX), the chairman of the Trump administration’s Religious Liberty Commission, removed Carrie Prejean Boller from the commission following her remarks in a heated hearing on antisemitism.
“Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue. This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision,” Patrick wrote on X.
Prejean Boller’s removal comes after she questioned Jewish students and religious leaders on the definition of antisemitism, whether anti-Zionism is considered antisemitism, and said that her Catholic faith teaches her not to embrace Zionism. Prejean Boller, who won the Miss California USA pageant in 2009, also wore a pin that showed the U.S. flag adjacent to the Palestinian flag, as she called Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel a “genocide.”
Prejean Boller asked Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University, “If I don’t support the political state of Israel, am I an antisemite?” Berman responded that he doesn’t “personally label people,” but “if somebody says they’re an anti-Zionist, they are saying about themselves that they have a double standard, and hypocrisy, and they’re taking antisemitic positions.”
“I don’t agree with that, because as a Catholic, I don’t agree that the new, modern state of Israel has any biblical prophecy meaning at all,” Preajean Boller said.
Prejean Boller faced ridicule from the hearing audience at the Museum of the Bible as she made her remarks, responding to the boos and outcry with, “I think you should remain quiet and respect this hearing.” She also questioned a Jewish University of California, Los Angeles graduate who experienced antisemitism whether speaking out against the humanitarian crisis in Gaza should be seen as antisemitic.
In Patrick’s statement announcing that he removed Prejean Boller from the commission, he said that in the Spring, the commission would “deliver one of the most important reports in American history” to President Donald Trump.
“The President respects all faiths. He believes that all Americans have a right to receive the great inheritance given to them by our founding fathers in the First Amendment. I am grateful to President Trump for having the vision and boldness to create this Commission. Fighting for the Word of God and religious freedom is what this nation was founded upon,” Patrick wrote.
Prejean Boller has stood by her statements and lines of questioning from Monday’s hearing on her social media pages. She rejected calls for her voluntary resignation that came following the hearing, saying in a Monday statement, “I will not be resigning from this commission.”
“Anyone demanding that I do so only proves my point: that in practice this body is being treated as if it is open only to pro-Israel Zionists, rather than to the diverse range of religious voices it was created to represent. A commission meant to defend religious liberty cannot purge commissioners whose faith leads them to different conclusions,” Prejean Boller said.
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Prejean Boller, who aligns with anti-Israel figures on the Right such as Candice Owens, is the latest example of the split among conservatives in their views on the Jewish state, which was heightened when former Fox commentator Tucker Carlson invited right-wing streamer Nick Fuentes on his podcast.
Prejean Boller’s ouster also comes days after multifaith groups sued the commission for what they called “unbalanced and biased viewpoints” and a lack of religious diversity.