Did Kamala Harris actually work at McDonalds?

Question

What has Kamala Harris said? Why has Donald Trump jumped on it? Have McDonald’s confirmed she worked at the restaurant? According to the article, McDonalds employees in California have been told to be sworn to secrecy as to whether or not Kamala Harris worked there at one point or not. In a video Donald Trump claimed that after 15 minutes in the kitchen/drive-thru he worked “15 more minutes than Kamala (Harris).”

Answer 1

No she did not work there. If go to her recent jobs it never stated that. Kamala was never in that fast food industry. Trump worked there recently so people think she would but she never did or has .  The link below states more about trump and kamala

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2024/10/21/did-kamala-harris-work-at-mcdonalds-everything-we-know/

Comments

This article is locked behind a paywall, but I would like to politely diagree, as this is something that is not verifiable. This is due to the fact that simply, this was a job that she worked at for a small amount of time, it is likely that Mcdonalds corprate has no record of her employement on hand except for paper checks that would be in storage. If you have ever worked in the service industry, you may know that there is francises, franchises are singular locations of resturants that can include chains like Mcdonalds, Jack in the box, Popeyes etc. Franchises typically do not take great records, especially over the course of 40 years, and due to this it would not be possible to check with corprate because they simply would not have this information from corprate (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/21/trump-harris-worked-at-mcdonalds/) Also it is important to know that trump did not in fact work there. He did not recieve a paycheck, nor actually become an employee, which is verifable due to the fact that we live in a digitized 21st century (https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/donald-trumps-mcdonalds-day-job-was-staged-redditors-expose-photoop-101729480394604.html) Also, as somone in the working class industry, fryers are not that hard to operate, and there is a lot more to being a mcdonalds employee than what trump did that day. He did not take inventory, open or close the store, simply did menial activties such as handing food to customers and turning on the fryer. Here is a employee manual on actual responsibilities of real employees (https://www.mcdonalds.com/content/dam/sites/uk/nfl/pdf/uploads/careers/Salaried-Employee-Handbook-Office.pdf). Also, back to the semantics of Kamala and her employment if you would like more resources (https://www.ktvu.com/news/kamala-harris-trump-mcdonalds-alameda-resume) it is important to remeber that working class jobs such as mcdonalds are not things that you include on your resume espically if you have only worked for a few months. Thank you for your comment though!

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This is a well thought-out and articulate response Nate. You make important points about how the corporate world operates and back it up with verifiable information. The headlines in recent news of Trump 'working' at McDonalds appears to be a publicity scheme, which so far has proven to be highly effective. The only note that I might make is to back up your specific point of how franchises do not typically have great records of short-term employment, as this is a central claim to your argument and is something that needs to be confirmed.

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How would you rate the claim then? False? True? Misleading? Always select a rating and mention your stance clearly within your fact-checks. Thanks!

Answer 2

Many articles have stated or claimed that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonald's because she didn't include the position on her resume when applying for legal internships and other employment opportunities. One thing to note is why would she need to explicitly say on her resume that she worked at McDonald's for a summer while in college when that job does not correlate with a potential legal position. But this article by the New York Times has dug through other news articles about the "mystery McDonald's job" that may or may not exist because no one can corroborate the story. They found a friend of VP Harris while she was in college and how she recalls a time when Kamala Harris' mother had spoken to her about her daughter working at McDonald's. So while there is nothing on her resume, someone who has a connection to her can say that they recall her working at McDonald's while in college.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/20/us/politics/kamala-harris-mcdonalds-work-trump.html