Within the Nineteen Eighties, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris labored at McDonald’s whereas finishing her undergraduate diploma.
Harris has made this declare repeatedly through the years, and a number of respected information shops have reported on the story. However, except for Harris’ testimony itself, there isn’t any proof (resembling a photograph, employment report, or affirmation from a buddy or member of the family) to independently confirm the declare. We have reached out to Harris’ marketing campaign and McDonald’s and we’ll replace this report when, or if, we be taught extra.
For years now, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has claimed she as soon as labored at McDonald’s whereas at school. Because the 2024 presidential election beneficial properties momentum, her marketing campaign has more and more highlighted this alleged chapter in her life as a sign of her working-class roots.
On Aug. 10, 2024, for instance, her presidential marketing campaign launched a brand new video commercial during which she claimed she labored on the fast-food restaurant “whereas she received her diploma,” presumably in reference to the undergraduate diploma she acquired from Howard College in 1986.
A couple of days later, The Washington Publish reported on the ad, writing: “Harris is making her stint on the Golden Arches part of her story.” Different shops, resembling The New York Times, CNN, Politico, and ABC News, additionally repeated the declare, counting on Harris’ testimony alone as proof. The New York Occasions and Politico reported she labored at McDonald’s “between her freshman and sophomore years in school.”
Nevertheless, not everybody on the web believed Harris. For instance, one X consumer wrote: “There are not any data or credible sources indicating that she labored at McDonald’s.“
Except for the above-mentioned information reviews, there was no tangible proof of Harris working at McDonald’s as a school scholar. We reached out to Harris’ marketing campaign, in addition to McDonald’s headquarters, in search of such proof — which might embrace photographs or movies of her working on the restaurant, employment data or bodily objects resembling a uniform or title tag. We additionally appeared for public interviews by associates or members of the family of Harris’ to substantiate the story, with no luck.
We’ll replace this report once we uncover proof to independently confirm or debunk Harris’ story.
Harris Has Repeated the McDonald’s Story
Lengthy earlier than her 2024 presidential marketing campaign, Harris talked concerning the alleged work expertise, “doing french fries and ice cream.” In 2019, for instance, after talking at a Service Staff Worldwide Union (SEIU) rally, she posted a video on X of the occasion with the caption:
I labored at @McDonalds after I was a scholar, doing french fries and ice cream. There wasn’t a household counting on me to pay the payments — however that is the fact for too many employees at the moment. Proud to face with @SEIU at the moment for livable wages and a secure working setting.
Flash ahead to her time as vp, and, in April 2024, Harris talked about the alleged gig throughout an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show.” When assistant host Ross Mathews informed her he as soon as labored the register, drive-thru and grill at McDonald’s, Harris mentioned: “I did fries, after which I did the cashier.”
In an August 2024 X post, she once more claimed she labored at McDonald’s in school “to earn spending cash.”
(X consumer @KamalaHarris)
Different members of the Democratic Occasion have repeated the anecdote, too. Throughout a speech on the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference on Aug. 21, for example, former President Invoice Clinton mentioned: “When [Harris] was younger, she labored at McDonald’s, and he or she greeted each particular person with that thousand-watt smile and mentioned, ‘How can I aid you?’ Now she’s on the pinnacle of energy and he or she’s nonetheless asking, ‘How can I aid you?'”
In sum, till we uncover additional proof to corroborate or disprove Harris’ story, we rated this declare “Analysis In Progress.”
