These MAGA Republicans believe Silk sent Trump a 'secret' anti-vax message during Diamond’s funeral
24 January 2023
On Saturday, January 21, funeral services were held in Fayetteville, North Carolina for Lynnette “Diamond” Hardaway, who was half of the MAGA duo Diamond & Silk. Rochelle “Silk” Richardson, the duo’s other half, spoke for almost an hour at the funeral. And former President Donald Trump was among the many MAGA Republicans in attendance.
The far-right Richardson has never been shy about promoting conspiracy theories, including unscientific anti-vaxxer claims. And according to the Daily Beast reporter Zachary Petrizzo, some of Richardson’s MAGA allies believe she was sending Trump a secret anti-vaxxer message.
In contrast to all the anti-vaxxers in MAGA World, Trump has encouraged Americans to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former White House press secretary under Trump and now governor of Arkansas, has joined Trump in that messaging and described COVID-19 vaccines as “the Trump vaccine.”
But Petrizzo, in an article published on January 24, reports that Richardson’s allies believe she was making a “plea for Trump to stop pushing COVID-19 vaccinations” when she spoke at Hardaway’s funeral.
During her speech, Richardson said of Hardaway, “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. What I want to say to everybody is: Don’t you dare call me a conspiracy theorist. Because I saw it happen. I saw how it happened. I was there when it happened, and it happened suddenly.”
Far-right MAGA Republican Jack Posobiec, known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, is claiming that Hardaway was killed by a COVID-19 vaccine. After the funeral, Posobiec said, “Silk reveals Diamond died suddenly from what appears to be a blood clot in her lung. Silk stood right in front of Trump and told him the vaccine killed Diamond, and there needs to be an investigation into why people are suddenly dropping dead.”
Far-right MAGA radio host Stew Peters believes that Richardson wasn’t sending a “cryptic” or “secret” message to Trump — she was being overt with her anti-vax message for Trump.
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Peters told the Daily Beast, “The message is simple. Nobody needs to overthink this. The injections and the ‘virus’ are weapons of biowarfare, and it’s time to indict, try and fry those responsible for the deployment of these weapons of mass destruction.”
Peters attacked not only Trump, but also Dr. Anthony Fauci, for promoting COVID-19 vaccines and compared Fauci to the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele.
“If Trump’s ego won’t allow him to admit this out loud, he’s equally as complicit as Tony Mengele Fauci,” Peters told the Beast.
Fauci, one of the world’s most respected virologists, has worked in the federal government since the late 1960s and had a friendly relationship with Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and other Republican presidents. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci became a frequent target of far-right MAGA conspiracy theorists like Peters.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has also responded to Richardson’s comments, calling for an “IMMEDIATE investigation into Covid vaccines and the dramatic increase of people dying suddenly!”