Former President Donald Trump, speaking at a memorial service for half of the conservative duo “Diamond and Silk,” said he never really knew Silk.
Trump, 76, was among a number of Republicans who spoke at the memorial in North Carolina on Saturday for Lynette “Diamond” Hardaway, 51, who died suddenly earlier this month.
Rochelle “Silk” Richardson praised the former president for the relationship he had with her and her sister, saying Trump treated the siblings “just like the other children: Eric, Don Jr., Tiffany,” according to the Daily Mail.
Trump called Diamond one of the world’s “biggest stars,” but noted that he “didn’t know Silk at all.”
“The world has lost one of its brightest stars but I see that we have another star who was equal to but she stepped up and she is different,” he said.
‘I’m serious. I thought I knew them both, I didn’t, I knew Diamond, but I didn’t know Silk at all. I just learned about Silk. You’re fantastic, you’re going to carry on beyond, beyond anybody’s wildest imaginations,” he said.
The former president has been pictured with the pro-Trump duo numerous times, including in the White House’s Oval Office.
When news of Diamond’s death on Jan. 8 surfaced, Trump called her “Magnificent Diamond” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“Really bad news for Republicans and frankly, all Americans,” Trump wrote at the time. “Our beautiful Diamond, of Diamond and Silk, has just passed away at her home in the State she loves so much, North Carolina.”
He said Silk with “with her all the way, and at her passing.”
“There was no better team anywhere or at any time,” Trump added.
Silk, in her comments about her sister, claimed that Diamond died from a plot related to anti-COVID-19 vaccination conspiracy theories.
“Instead of asking if Americans are vaxxed or unvaxxed, the real question to ask is: Are Americans being poisoned?” she asked the crowd at a church in Fayetteville, NC
“In the wild, when they want to depopulate and sterilize a large group of animals, they usually inject one animal, and then that one animal infects the rest of the animals,” Silk said.
“In case some of you have been hiding under a rock or are still stuck in denial, people are dropping dead around here, and nobody is talking about it! They are dropping dead suddenly and unexpectedly,” she said.
She noted that the scientific community considers those deaths of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.
“Many call it a conspiracy theory. I call it murder,” she said.
Silk recalled her sister’s final moments.
“She said to me, ‘I can’t breathe.’ It was something out of nowhere, and no warning. … Each breath was less, and less, and less,” Silk said.