The presidential candidate has repeatedly claimed the alleged work experience in an attempt to connect with low-wage workers.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has repeatedly claimed that she worked at McDonald’s while getting her undergraduate degree in the 1980s. This claim has been reported by multiple reputable news outlets, but aside from Harris’ own testimony, there is no independent evidence such as a photo, employment record, or confirmation from a friend or family member to verify the story. Harris has invoked the alleged McDonald’s work experience throughout her political career, including in a 2024 presidential campaign ad and during a 2024 appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show.” Other prominent Democrats, such as former President Bill Clinton, have also repeated the anecdote. However, some internet users have challenged the claim, with unverified reports that “McDonald’s Corporate sources” have no record of Harris working at their locations. Snopes reached out to Harris’ campaign and McDonald’s headquarters seeking evidence to corroborate the claim, but as of the report’s publication, no such proof has been uncovered. Without tangible evidence to independently confirm or debunk the story, Snopes has rated the claim “Research In Progress” as they continue to investigate.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    3·
    20 days ago

    What the fuck kind of hilarious nonsense is this

    Is she planning to deploy the military against protestors and have them seize the voting machines? Or destroy the departments of Education and Labor? No? Okay, cool, she’s got my vote. Now let’s move on to talking about either (a) how to make sure she wins, or (b) how we can get better behavior out of the Democrats on Gaza and climate policy.

    Get this Fox News horseshit out of here, pls and thank you

        • norimee@lemmy.world
          1·
          20 days ago

          Did YOU read the article.

          It basically says, there is no proof she worked at McD, but there also isn’t any proof she didn’t. It was 40 years ago.

          So actually it says NOTHING. Why did you post it? To stir shit up out of hot air.

          • Eccitaze@yiffit.net
            2·
            19 days ago

            Shit, there’s roughly even odds that the records of her employment no longer exist because the franchise she worked at shut down, or destroyed them because they were 40 years old.

            I used to work at a Sprint call center in the early '10s, but if you asked me to prove it I literally couldn’t, because the staffing agency I was hired through, the call center, and Sprint itself no longer exist. Doesn’t change that I worked there.

  • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.worldEnglish
    3·
    19 days ago

    What a fucking non-story. “Retail giant keeps poor records of its disposable employees from FORTY FUCKING YEARS AGO”. Piss off.

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    1·
    19 days ago

    Oh my God who cares. Donald Trump has never worked a day in his goddamn life. Frankly I could not care less what Kamala Harris’ summer job was

  • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    20 days ago

    Can they actually prove anyone worked at McDonalds that long ago? Aside from saving a pay stub for 40 years I don’t see how one could prove or disprove such a thing, I doubt the company keeps records of every employee that far back.

    • okwhateverdude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      20 days ago

      She could have worked for a franchisee, too. If that was the case, a SMB owner is definitely not going to have those records after all this time

      • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world
        1·
        20 days ago

        Assuming that franchise is still even open. How long does the US gov hold onto tax returns? The IRS says there’s usually no need to keep them after 6 years. The best evidence they could find would probably be a coworker that corroborates the story or a photograph of Harris behind the counter working. The photo seems unlikely, and how many coworkers from 30 years ago do you remember?

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          20 days ago

          The Social Security Administration has a record of every employer that’s ever paid you and how much they paid you each year.

          They have to for paying out social security.

          • abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.usEnglish
            0·
            20 days ago

            So I actually tried this recently. Everything is done by paper and mail - even though I visited the office in person, they just mail it onwards.

            Also, despite having an expected turnaround of six months officially, it turns out that wait times of multiple years are not uncommon once the request is submitted. So even if Harris submitted a request right now the election would be long over before she would have a copy of the records to prove it either way.

    • norimee@lemmy.world
      1·
      20 days ago

      I can’t think of any way how I could proof the first job I had during school in the late 90’s. I was working in a restaurant kitchen, peeling potatoes and stuff. You don’t take photos there or keep name tags or other keepsakes. It was a shitty job, you want to forget about it, as soon as you left the premises.

      Kamala Harris’ job is even longer ago. 40 years is a long time to keep paystubs or something. There were no camera phones back then, no digital footprint you could recreate. That she can’t produce any proof, doesn’t proof anything.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      20 days ago

      Social security records.

      90s is nothing, a normal person could get it in a month, one of her aids could probably get it in an hour.

      Does it matter tho?

      Eh, it would be fucked up if she just flat out lied, but it’s hard to imagine she would lie about that.

      If she proves it tho, they’ll make a new stupid claim and if she doesn’t prove it they’ll use this as evidence that she would prove it if it wasn’t true.

      • odelik@lemmy.today
        0·
        20 days ago

        How to know when OP is unhinged and divisive:

        People are agreeing with givesomefucks, who often gets down voted for unpopular views.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    18 days ago

    Also: let me see if I understand the shifting narrative here. I thought a few days ago, the cons were pretending to concern-troll over how Kamala DID NOT put this on her resume and now they are demanding the long form birth certificate, oops, I mean, the pay stubs, from 40 fucking years ago?

    Given how many brazen fucking lies donOLD has told over the course of his “career”, how does something like this even rate even if she is lying about working at McDs? I mean this guy used a Sharpie to update a fucking weather map tracking a GD hurricane, while doing the very job he is applying for right now.

  • 800XL@lemmy.world
    1·
    18 days ago

    Holy shit who gives a fuck? Jesus christ, conservatives. Grow the fuck up. You are all are mentally 12 years old and act like it. What’s next? You gonna make a big deal about something she wore once?

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    18 days ago

    LOL, for a headline that sounds like something out of The Onion, I’m surprised to see that Snopes wasted a second on this.

    Who GAF?

  • Artyom@lemm.ee
    0·
    20 days ago

    When someone tells me they worked a specific job in college, I have never once doubted the truth of that statement. Why would anyone have reason to lie about such a thing? If it was a complete lie, you’d constantly be at risk of being exposed by a close friend who knew the truth, which is WAY WORSE for a presidential candidate. To even explore this as Snopes is pro-Trump.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    01·
    20 days ago

    what matters is Harris said it to show solidarity to the workers in the US to garner their votes

    no matter what party the candidate is from if they are willing to lie to the voters what else would they lie about

    Walz overfunding police so they would manhandle protesters that are against an oil pipeline but coming out as an environmentalist is the same thing too

    matters who we put in office, and they should be held to a high standard

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
      0·
      20 days ago

      what matters is Harris said it to show solidarity to the workers in the US to garner their votes

      What a perfectly sensible reason to let Trump come to power and order the military to start shooting protestors with live ammunition

      Surely, the metrics of your political decision making are totally logical

      • Verdant Banana@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        02·
        20 days ago

        so only Republicans need to be held to a standard but not Democrats because of Trump?

        not to mention Walz got the police extra funding to put the boot to protesters and under federal approval under then President Trump in a bipartisan effort

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Line_3_protests

        Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has not taken a firm stance on the pipeline expansion, which received federal approval under the Trump administration.[18][23]