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
    811·
    3 months 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
          43·
          3 months 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
            11·
            3 months 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.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
        121·
        3 months ago

        Still waiting for verdantbanana to break down more about the US voting system to me

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
            111·
            3 months ago

            Just thought maybe you two might know each other. Maybe you could ask him about responding to my question, and then I’ll get back to debunking your talking points? I really would like to of course but it’s bothering me that he doesn’t want to teach me about the US voting system. Makes it hard to focus on talking about a whole bunch of new topics besides the super important McDonalds’ thing we were talking about before.

  • HappyTimeHarry@lemm.eeEnglish
    49·
    3 months 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
      33·
      3 months 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
        19·
        3 months 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
          81·
          3 months 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.us
            32·
            3 months 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
      14·
      3 months 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
      104·
      3 months 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
        16·
        3 months ago

        How to know when OP is unhinged and divisive:

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

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
          22·
          3 months ago

          It’s like when people think that them walking by causing street lights to go out.

          We’re pattern recognition machines, and we have certain biases. People don’t notice all the streetlights that are working, just the ones that flicker. Either it happens right next to you, or you don’t notice.

          Chances are you’re only looking at usernames when it’s really down voted. With the rare exception this time.

          I bet if your scrolled thru my post history, you’ve up voted me more than youve down voted me.

      • abff08f4813c@j4vcdedmiokf56h3ho4t62mlku.srv.us
        32·
        3 months ago

        Social security records. 90s is nothing, a normal person could get it in a month

        I tried this and it takes ages. I applied back on July 1st and haven’t heard a peep yet - apparently this can take many months or sometimes even years.

  • Artyom@lemm.ee
    281·
    3 months 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.

      • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
        113·
        3 months ago

        Unlike Trump who totally didn’t tell Isreal to “finish up” and to get it over with “fast” because they were “losing the PR war” and then, when Biden didn’t supply weapons to Israel, claimed Biden “abandoned” them.

        Oh, and who, just a month ago pledged to help save Israel while also saying that Harris hates them? Who also failed to cut military aid to Israel during his presidency? Oh, right, also Trump.

        Neither of our primary parties are going to back down on Israeli support any time soon. While I don’t approve of what’s happening. It’s foolish to think that this is a dividing factor in this election. It’s not.

          • benderbeerman
            4·
            3 months ago

            False dichotomy.

            Since there’s only 2 viable candidates, then one of them is going to win. Both of them support the genocide.

            You are not conceding on genocide if you are going to pick the one you disagree with less, ethically and morally speaking, outside of that.

            If you don’t vote, or if you vote for a non-viable candidate, then you are conceding on all the other ethics and morals that you would otherwise agree with, just by not voting for the less bad but viable one, whoever you believe that is.

            You are actively supporting all the negative things about the candidate you agree with least by not voting for one of the two primary candidates.

            It sucks, but guess what… when you are stuck on a sinking boat, you can sit in angry defiance and complain all you want about how you don’t support the way that your boat manufacturer supported genocide. Or you can pitch in and try to save the fucking people on the boat with you.

            One of these behaviors could make someone look like a selfish asshole.

            Unless you are introducing a viable candidate who is against the genocide, then there is no concession being made on genocide.

            FOH with your false dichotomy.

  • benderbeerman
    181·
    3 months ago

    ITT: disinformation influencers and bad faith shills, and a bunch of people not putting up with their shit

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    3 months ago

    They need to find someone who actually ate one of Harris’s alleged burgers and can testify that it was at least as good as the ones Trump served in the White House—otherwise why should anyone vote for her?

    • Eccitaze@yiffit.net
      2·
      3 months ago

      A McDonald’s burger from the 80s when they still used tallow for their fries and higher quality ingredients? No contest, it was better than the TrumpDonalds that got served in 2017-2020

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    15·
    3 months 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

  • MagicShel@programming.dev
    14·
    3 months ago

    I worked for Burger King in the 80’s and you’d never be able to prove that, either. I worked much longer for Sears in the 80’s and I wouldn’t be able to prove that, either. This is completely pointless.

    I don’t even know I’d be able to prove I served in the Army Reserve for six years if it weren’t for my DD214.

  • NameTaken@lemmy.world
    12·
    3 months ago

    This is just sad. Whether she lied about McDonald’s or not has no bearing at all on who I will vote for in the coming election. In the grand scheme of things this is meaningless. In fact if this is literally all that can be dug up about Harris it kind of speaks highly of her.

    At the end of the day we all lose cause essentially elections are coming down to whoever is the lesser of two evils and not someone you stand behind.