by Diamond
Yes. We were going to win it.
After we spoke, they let us go down in the crowd, and we were able to pass out hats and memorabilia. I remember grabbing some people at that rally, and they grabbed on to me, and we just started yelling, “We are going to win this!”
I got so excited because I felt it: We were going to win. We had stumped for Trump all over the country; we had done everything that we could to enlighten people and tell them, “If you don’t like the Republican Party, then don’t vote for the party—vote for the person.”
That’s right.
And so, by golly, we expected the results to be on our side because we had done our part. We felt as if it was going to happen. We put in the work, and now we wanted it to pay off.
That’s right. And it seemed like every time the Left tried to throw something at the president to knock him down, he’d get right back up again after a few days.
That’s right. Every time they would try to crucify Donald J. Trump, he’d rise back up bigger, better, and stronger.
Yes. That’s right.
That was the last rally we attended, right before Election Day.
Chapter 12 If You Believe It, You Will Achieve It
Election Day
We had never been thrust into the middle of a presidential election, and we didn’t know the proper protocol for one. One thing is for sure, things were not highly organized.
People became a part of the campaign and began working wherever they fit in. For Diamond and Silk, our true intent and what we really wanted to see at the end of the day was Donald Trump as the President of the United States. That was our bottom line.
Right.
So the night before Election Day, we had just finished the last rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, and we flew to New York and stayed at the Trump International Hotel.
We were so glad to be safe, sound, and comfortable because it had been a long, exciting, and exhausting day. One thing I appreciated was that security flew with us to New York. For some reason our popularity had grown, being out there on the tour.
Mm-hmm.
So we were at the Trump International Hotel, in New York City, on Election Day, November 8, 2016. I woke up so giddy, I was almost beside myself. It felt like Christmas morning, where I knew something was going to be under the tree, and I just didn’t know what it was. I felt like I could not contain myself, but Silk was calm.
Yes. I was eating my breakfast and watching the news. I was focused on the tone of the news, and we were switching back and forth between the news stations. I could tell that a lot of people on the Left were on edge. For me, I was calm, cool, and collected. Diamond was just excited.
I didn’t know what to do with my emotions. We had ordered a nice breakfast, and I probably didn’t eat any of it.
You didn’t eat a lot of it, no.
So CNN—which is fake news in my mind—had Bill and Hillary Clinton on, and they were going to the polls to vote. It was a camera shot of them going in, and she had a crowd outside of the polling place. Well, I wondered, how did the crowd know she was going to be out there?
Right.
When she came out, she started taking photographs. I said to Silk, “That doesn’t look real.”
It all looked fake, like people were just staged to be there so she could have a photo shoot.
When I saw that, I just knew… she was going to lose the election that night. I got a phone call from somebody in Virginia, and I asked how things were going down there. He said people were lined up, and some of the lines were out the door and around the block.
I said to Silk, “Well, why aren’t they reporting that?”
Mm-hmm. The mainstream media didn’t report on the masses of supporters Donald Trump had. They did not want the American people to see the enthusiasm of Americans who wanted Donald Trump in office. They were out there, and they were voting. But the media tried to keep that from the public, as if it wasn’t happening.
Finally, it was becoming afternoon, and we had to get ready to go to the actual election night event.
Mm-hmm.
I’m still giddy; I’m still all over the place, but I managed to get my hair done and pull myself together.
Yes, you did.
Now, most of the time, Diamond and Silk take an Uber or a cab, but we very seldom walk anywhere. Now, we’re in New York City, we get an Uber, and the driver drops us off about a block away from where the event was being held.
As we’re walking up to the venue, people notice us and want to take photos with us. Well, we love our fans, so we stopped to take some photos with them.
Mm-hmm.
We got to the New York Hilton Midtown, and we went where we were supposed to go, but our names were not on the guest list.
Mm-hmm.
So they let us go to the next section to see if our names were on that list. Well, when we got to the next level, we had to wait because our names weren’t on that list either. Finally, in walked Lynne Patton.
Yes. By that time, Lynne Patton had arrived. We were all glad to see each other, and she asked if everything was okay.
We told her our names weren’t on the list.
So Lynne Patton quickly handled that.
She made sure we got to where we were supposed to go because we were supposed to be with family and friends. What I can remember is standing there, waiting to see where we were supposed to go, and in walks Donald Trump’s brother.
Yes, and he was so excited to see us and meet us.
He gave us a big hug, and we chatted and laughed. Y’all, just walking into the venue, there was so much excitement in the air.
Nobody was on edge; everybody was just excited.
Right. The only bad thing that happened that night was a girl’s high-heeled shoe got caught in the escalator while she was going up.
Yes, I remember that.
I’m like, oh, my God, we don’t need media to see this. We don’t want them to report on anything like this because they will take things and blow them way out of proportion, and something innocent will become a mess.
Mm-hmm.
Thank God, she ended up being okay. We went into the room where the celebration was going on. As we were walking in, along the entire left side of the walkway was media.
Yes. Station after station after station were snapping pictures, filming, doing whatever they had to do to capture a unique piece of this event and history.
I remember one reporter asked us something like, “What are you going to do if Donald Trump doesn’t win?”
We basically responded with, “It’s not over until God says it’s over.”
That’s right. We stood on that and stayed the course. We had no doubts that he was going to win. So we got where we needed to be, we settled in, and, as we usually do, we got in the zone. We are never all over the place; we found a spot and rode out the event right from there.
Mm-hmm.
So we stayed in our spot and started watching state after state after state called for Donald Trump.
We met a lot of wonderful people that night as we were waiting on the states to come in.
I particularly remember the state of Virginia. First, they called Virginia for Trump, and we celebrated that Virginia went red. Mind you, we already had an inkling this would be true because our contact in Virginia was telling me how long the lines were.
All of a sudden, they took it back. Virginia didn’t go red; it was still blue. You know, today, I think something wasn’t quite right with that.
Right. Something was fishy.
Other than that, we watched all the states come in red, one right after another. The media kept showing Hillary’s crowd, looking sick and devastated.
Yes, hahaha.
Then, they would show our crowd, and you saw people with their Make America Great Again hats on smiling and jumping with excitement. It was exhilarating, motivating, and full of energy. If something is going to actually happen, the energy has to be right.
; That’s right; and there was a great atmosphere in the room. It was a room filled with winners and filled with winning; that’s the best way I can explain it.
When they called Wisconsin for Donald Trump, I looked at Lynne Patton’s face. She could not believe that they had called Wisconsin for Donald Trump. A state that hadn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate in more than thirty years had just turned red. Lynne Patton started yelling and hollering. She was excited and shocked all at the same time.
Then, when they called North Carolina for Trump—wow—excitement went to a whole new level because now it was just about reality.
Remember, we had just been in North Carolina the night before and had the opportunity to hand out hats and meet the people. I felt a chill all over my body. I knew we were going to win, and I knew we were going to win North Carolina.
That’s right. So as the states for Trump started coming in, the concern was whether he would claim the 270 electoral votes needed to actually win the election. Donald Trump surpassed all of that, winning 304 electoral votes to Hillary’s 227.
Right. They said he would never reach a certain number, but he didn’t just reach that number, he went way over it.
Yes. He left Hillary Clinton in the dust with her bottle of hot sauce.
When Pennsylvania came in red, we all knew it was over, but Hillary’s camp did not want to concede.
That’s right.
At that point, it was about 1:30 a.m., and we were heading to the dining area.
Mm-hmm. As we were going, Sarah Palin’s team came up to us, and they were telling us that she wanted to meet us. We were like, “Where is she?”
We’d never met her in person before, but we had interviewed with her by video. It felt like we were getting together with an old friend. We grabbed her, hugged her, and got to take photos with her.
Yes. When we had our interview with Sarah Palin, I was so honored. I almost couldn’t wrap my head around doing an interview with someone who had run for the vice presidency of the United States not that long ago.
Right.
We were able to see her through the monitor. She’s a beautiful lady, really down to earth. I thought that interview was really nice and went really well.
Y’all, Sarah Palin is so beautiful, meek, and humble. She was so excited to meet us, and we were even more excited to meet her.
We sure were.
So Sarah Palin, Katrina Pierson, Lynne Patton, Omarosa, Silk, and I went into the dining room to get something to eat. We were waiting for Hillary Clinton to go ahead and concede.
Yeah. Seemed like it was going to be an all-nighter. Finally, at about 2:00 a.m., someone got a call that Hillary had conceded.
When she conceded, however, she didn’t have enough decency to come out onstage.
Right; she left her supporters standing there cold.
When we heard that Hillary had finally conceded, we rushed back out there because Donald Trump was about to be announced as the forty-fifth President of the United States. We wanted to be onstage because Diamond and Silk had worked just as hard as anybody else.
Mm-hmm.
We never got paid for anything, and the one thing we wanted was to be right onstage with our president because he won it fair and square.
Right.
So we moved ourselves into the vicinity of where his team would be.
Right. Everybody that was due to go out onstage with the president was gathering in one area, so we got into that area.
It appeared that we were being given the runaround. We were given directions, but when we followed them, the aisle was blocked. We ended up downstairs in the crowd.
So it was Omarosa, Katrina Pierson, Silk, and myself.
Right. So Omarosa was looking for another entryway so that we could be with the family and the rest of the team. Well, we kept getting blocked and told no.
Every avenue that Omarosa would try, they kept blocking her and telling her she couldn’t go.
That’s right.
It was such a mess. Omarosa was getting upset and started going off. Now, the one thing that I’ve learned when it comes to security, if you start running off your mouth, you won’t get anywhere.
Right.
If you want something, you can’t get it with a nasty disposition or a nasty attitude. So Silk and I did what we were asked to do.
That’s right.
We weren’t going to act like fools or try to throw our weight around with security.
We stood there on the floor with everybody else, and that’s when it was announced that Donald Trump was now the forty-fifth President of the United States. I looked over at Omarosa, and she started crying. I mean, she couldn’t hold it in, she couldn’t contain it; she started crying uncontrollably. Then, of course, we all started tearing up.
That’s why we were so surprised at the antics and the tactics that Omarosa used later, disparaging the President of the United States.
Yeah. Omarosa was genuine in her feelings that night. She wasn’t crying because she didn’t want to be there. She was crying because she was happy that he won—that we had all won.
Right.
The way that Omarosa portrayed herself about a year after this was absolutely not the Omarosa we knew.
Finally, they introduced Donald Trump and his team to the stage. Now, we had been called derogatory names and been told that we were crazy for supporting Donald Trump. After everything that we’d gone through, especially as black supporters, seeing him there felt like a sense of liberation.
Yes, it did.
And the first thought in my mind was Hillary Clinton had Beyoncé and Jay-Z, but Trump had Diamond and Silk. That’s how I saw it.
Right.
So as they were coming out onto the stage, we looked to the side of us and saw these little bitty stairs to get up on the stage.
Right.
So we told Omarosa, and, gurl, when she saw those stairs, nobody was stopping her. She was willing to climb on that stage if she had to. She got up there and turned around and helped the next woman up; then that woman helped the next and so forth. We all got onstage and walked right in with everybody else.
Yes, we did.
Even though we were not part of the Trump campaign, we were doing what we were doing as avid supporters, and we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to be onstage for his win.
While the president was thanking everybody, we were standing right there onstage with him. It was such an exciting night, y’all. We will never, ever forget that. I was standing right behind Brad Parscale. He was so tall, I had to keep looking around him on my tiptoes.
Hahaha.
So after it was said and done, President Trump walked off the stage and started shaking hands with his supporters. Everybody that was onstage with him then followed him into the garage elevator. He looked at all of us, and he thanked us all for our support.
Mm-hmm. I remember us blowing kisses at Melania, and she blew a kiss back.
Once everybody got into their respective cars, we called an Uber, and we headed back to the Trump International Hotel.
Mm-hmm.
Our intention had been to get a few hours of sleep and be up early for interviews, but it didn’t work like that. Thanks to Hillary Clinton, we had to find a Starbucks and get some coffee before a driver had to drive us to an interview. I was sitting there half asleep, remember?
Yes, I do.
We had interviews lined up all day, but after that first one, I was so under the weather, Silk had to do all of those interviews while I drank juice and slept.
Yeah. We are women of our word, so we did not leave anybody hanging. When one of us couldn’t do the interview, the other did it.
We traveled in silence the next day because we knew that the other side was upset. They had adamantly said he wasn’t going to win. They were petrified, mortified, and horrified. We didn’t want to smear it in anybody’s face, so we traveled in silence.
I remember making a
video, and we restrained our excitement because we didn’t want anyone to be upset.
After a while of respecting everyone else, though, for me, it kind of turned into a restriction, like we weren’t allowed to celebrate. That’s when we went on The Russ Parr Morning Show and told them they had to eat crow. We told them to make sure they put seasoning salt and barbecue sauce on it. It was time to eat up!
Hahaha.
See, the backlash that we got on the back end of everything was ruthless. To be standing as the winner after all that the Left had said and tried to do, it was really freaking liberating. When Donald Trump won, Diamond and Silk won too. We won against all of the doubt, slander, and mistrust, especially from some in the black community. I won’t lie about it, it felt good to just tell them all to eat crow.
That’s right; they had to eat a little crow.
So after all of that, y’all, we thought we would just kind of come down off of this and glide back into our old lives. It didn’t turn out like that. All of a sudden, we started hearing about Russia hacking the election. Even Obama was talking about it.
Right.
The Left wanted Russia to be the reason why Donald Trump won the election. When they said that, they basically tried to remove the validity of every American citizen’s vote. They were saying that we didn’t really vote for Donald Trump; it was Russia that hacked the election and influenced American voters to vote for Donald Trump.
Well, y’all, we had to do a rant video about this. On December 30, 2016, we put out the video, basically saying something wasn’t right. Something was going on. I believe that was the start of letting people know that some peeping and hiding and slipping and sliding was going on. What were they trying to deflect from?
In our minds, we knew Donald Trump won this fair and square. Throughout the past year, we had watched wave after wave after wave of American people not only support Donald Trump but support him enthusiastically. Why was the Left saying the reason for his win was because Russia helped him? We, the American people, voted for him, and he won the correct way.
Mm-hmm.
So then 2017 came along…
The Inauguration
Just before Inauguration Day, people started jockeying for positions at the White House. We had no interest in this; we didn’t stump for Trump in order to get a position. We used our time and our voices to get this president elected. We did it because we wanted him to be president.