Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 marketing campaign opponent, former President Donald Trump, has asserted that Harris fabricated a narrative about working at McDonald’s.
He made the feedback at an Aug. 30 convention and in two Reality Social posts.
Trump has not cited clear proof to contradict Harris’ account. However now some social media customers are doing it for him — they are saying McDonald’s itself denied her employment story.
“MCDONALD’s CORPORATE has come forth and mentioned they don’t have any file in any respect of KAMALA HARRIS ever working at any of their places,” an X put up screenshot shared Aug. 31 on Fb mentioned.
Different posts on Fb, Instagram and Threads and X made related claims. Some posts have been flagged as a part of Meta’s efforts to fight false information and misinformation on its Information Feed. (Learn extra about our partnership with Meta, which owns Fb, Instagram and Threads.)
(Screengrab from Fb)
However these posts are incorrect: McDonald’s has issued no such assertion.
Harris has talked about her job at McDonald’s on the marketing campaign path and in different public appearances. Her marketing campaign informed PolitiFact that Harris labored the money register and staffed the fry and ice cream machines at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, in summer time 1983. Harris attended Howard College in Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1986.
We searched McDonald’s Corp.’s web site and social media accounts and located no public statements from the corporate about Harris’ work expertise there. We additionally discovered no information protection of such an announcement from the corporate.
PolitiFact contacted McDonald’s about this declare however didn’t obtain a response earlier than publication.
Once we requested Trump’s marketing campaign for proof, spokesperson Anna Kelly informed PolitiFact, “Kamala Harris mentioned that she paid her manner by means of school by working at McDonald’s. Why gained’t she show it?”
Trump’s marketing campaign additionally pointed to an Aug. 29 article from the conservative Washington Free Beacon that mentioned Harris didn’t point out her McDonald’s job in her books or on a 1987 resume. The article didn’t cite proof disproving Harris’ work expertise there.
What we find out about Harris’ McDonald’s job
Harris has not talked extensively about her job at McDonald’s when she was a university pupil, however for the reason that 2024 presidential marketing campaign began, the mentions have grow to be extra frequent.
The earliest occasion PolitiFact may discover of Harris speaking about her McDonald’s job is from 2019, when Harris marched with putting McDonald’s staff in Las Vegas. On the time, Harris was a Democratic presidential candidate for the 2020 election.
“I labored in McDonald’s. I used to be a pupil after I was working in McDonald’s. There was not a household counting on me to pay the hire, put meals on the desk and maintain the payments paid by the top of the month,” Harris mentioned in 2019.
In April, earlier than Harris launched her 2024 presidential marketing campaign, she talked about working on the quick meals chain on “The Drew Barrymore Present.” Harris mentioned she “did fries” and labored as a cashier. She mentioned her go-to order is a “quarter-pounder with cheese and fries” and her favourite dipping sauce for McNuggets is barbecue.
Since launching her 2024 presidential marketing campaign in July, Harris has highlighted her summer time job at McDonald’s in marketing campaign advertisements and on her private and marketing campaign X accounts. A professional-Harris political group additionally touted her McDonald’s job in an advert.
“Dedication is how Kamala Harris went from working in McDonald’s to prosecutor, state lawyer basic, U.S. senator and our vp in just one technology,” certainly one of her advertisements mentioned.
Harris’ working mate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has additionally pointed on the marketing campaign path to Harris’ McDonald’s job. On the Aug. 13 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Staff Conference in Los Angeles, Walz talked about Harris’ middle-class upbringing and the way she “picked up shifts at that McDonald’s as a pupil.”
There isn’t a proof that McDonald’s has known as into query Harris’ work expertise on the firm.
We price the declare that McDonald’s “mentioned they don’t have any file in any respect of Kamala Harris ever working at any of their places” False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
