Like many people – ?? – I had different jobs in my teens and early 20s. I worked as an assistant, I worked at a video store (I’m dating myself), I worked at a catalog company, etc. All of those jobs were part-time and unimportant and I wouldn’t be able to “prove” that I worked at any of those places decades after the fact. Nor would I expect any of my former employers to be able to confirm that I worked there for four months in 1999. Well, Kamala Harris has spoken about working at a California McDonald’s as a summer job after her freshman year at Howard. Instead of just saying “oh, that sounds believable, okay cool,” the national media and the Republican party is obsessed with turning “Kamala lied about working at McDonald’s” into the defining issue of the campaign. This came up again because Dementia Don staged a stunt at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s over the weekend, where he played with fries and handed out bags of food to his supporters.
Piers Morgan literally wrote a NY Post column about how Kamala Harris MUST be lying about working at McDonald’s because she never included the job in her CV when she graduated from law school. Which isn’t a thing – if you’re getting a job as a lawyer, you wouldn’t include your summer job at McDonald’s on your CV. Now JD Vance is chiming in:
Sen. JD Vance said Monday that VP Kamala Harris is not facing any mainstream media scrutiny over her previous claim that she worked at McDonald’s in college. Vance called out the mainstream media for its coverage of former President Trump’s trip Sunday to a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, where he interacted with workers, served fries and greeted customers at the drive-thru.
“The fact that these people are accusing him of a ‘stage-managed’ thing… of course, the president has to have security because there have been two attempts on his life in the last eight weeks. He can’t just walk into a McDonald’s and sign a W-9 and actually go on the payroll. That’s just not how this works, especially given the security threats on his life,” he told “America’s Newsroom.”
“But look, he was interacting with people. He was talking to the employees. He was giving people food, and he was just [doing] I think what he does best, which is just being among the people, talking to them about what they care about. He showed genuine interest in the employees and their lives and where they came from and what they were actually doing in their job, and that’s something you can’t stage, and you can’t fake.”
He continued, “That is just a genuine person that Donald Trump is, and it’s why I think a lot of working people, even though, of course, he’s a successful real estate billionaire, have this emotional connection to Donald Trump, you can’t make up that kind of connection.”
He took a swipe at Vice President Harris shortly after, telling Fox News’ Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that the Democratic nominee has “tried and failed,” to establish similar connections with voters.
“I think it’s why her campaign is flailing a little bit right now, because she goes into Sheetz and does four takes of her buying Doritos. Donald Trump just goes to McDonald’s and he is who he is and people love him,” he added.
It really is Idiocracy. We’re already there. We’ve been there for years. They’ve turned Kamala Harris’s summer job into the new Birtherism. “Why won’t Barack Obama show us his birth certificate” has become “why won’t Kamala Harris show us her McDonald’s pay stubs from the early 1980s??” And I’m sorry, but Trump’s McDonald’s stunt was hilariously stupid.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Getty.
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- Vice President Kamala Harris and Running Mate, Governor Tim Walz attend Campaign Rally at the University of Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center,Image: 905047270, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Vice President Kamala Harris, Credit line: Phil Lewis / Wenn / Avalon
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- Vice President Kamala Harris and Running Mate, Governor Tim Walz attend Campaign Rally at the University of Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center,Image: 905047505, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Vice President Kamala Harris, Credit line: Phil Lewis / Wenn / Avalon
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- Vice President Kamala Harris and Running Mate, Governor Tim Walz attend Campaign Rally at the University of Las Vegas Thomas & Mack Center,Image: 905186483, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Vice President Kamala Harris, Credit line: Phil Lewis / Wenn / Avalon
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- President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris speak at a campaign event to keep Black Voters at Girard College in Philadelphia Featuring: Vice President Kamala Harris Where: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States When: 29 May 2024 Credit: William Wade/INSTARimages
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- United States Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic Party nominee for President of the US, makes remarks addressing gun violence in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, September 26, 2024. Credit: Chris Kleponis / CNP Featuring: Kamala Harris Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Sep 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
If Trump and his acolytes are relying on Kamala lying about working at McDonald’s, Trump’s campaign is cratering and it needs a distraction for his dementia issues.
Yes
To refer to Donald as a man of the people is beyond words, really …
And Vance is far far worse
This is all they have a this a big nothing burger. You don’t put summer jobs in your resume after she started working as a lawyer you only put what is relevant to the job you are applying for and they know this they just are using this to try to hammer her but it’s not working. Voting early here where I live has been packed and we have set a record for early turnout. They should be very afraid because people are getting out there to vote and not just sitting home and saying whatever. Nobody gives two f**ks about her summer job. They care about what she can do now:
I worked at Wendy’s in high school and college. I guess that I better not run for office.
Trump and is supporters are ridiculous!
This is so unbelievably stupid that it has produced a silver lining. Anyone that says they aren’t voting for VP Harris because they need proof she worked at McDonald one summer 40 years ago is telling people they were never going to vote for her and stop wasting time on them.
Honestly the most shocking thing the Trump team has done is try to ding VP Harris on integrity. The man lies so much he won’t take part in a debate if there’s going to be a fact checker. He’s lied about everything from crowd sizes to his own policies. Now his campaign is trying to say VP Harris lied about a summer job and this is somehow disqualifying?
I have to laugh to keep from cringing at the fact that other countries can see that this is actually a US republican candidate for President.
“Anyone that says they aren’t voting for VP Harris because they need proof she worked at McDonald one summer 40 years ago is telling people they were never going to vote for her and stop wasting time on them.”
THANK YOU. I have read a number of so-called think pieces on extended interviews with “undecided” voters and…when you really listen to what they have to say, it’s all either false or vague impressions they have of Harris, which boils down to ignorance or straight up racism/misogyny. They always end up saying they’ll hold their nose and vote for Trump or not vote at all.
These people will not be swayed, don’t bother! It’s not rational thinking and never will be. They just claim they are “undecided” because they know deep down that they are making a mistake. Cognitive dissonance, pure and simple plus a heaping helping of shame that they prefer Trump but don’t want to say so to a journalist.
Spend the cash on busing in voters, ringing doorbells and other tried and true get out the vote strategies as we come down to the wire. That’s the way for Harris to clinch it IMO
Kaiser – you made a very good point. I too worked jobs during my high school and college years (late 80s, early 90s) I would not be able to provide proof for today. A hostess at a family-run Italian restaurant, lifeguarding and teaching private swimming lessons during the summers, an office assistant to a lawyer. Trump accusing anyone of lying is sheer psychological projection since almost every word that comes out of his mouth is a lie.
They are using this to distract from his talking about the late Arnold Palmer’s penis size, him misnaming Sage Steele, his overall health, intelligence and stamina. And JD Vance’s everything. I wonder what their polling is showing because they seem to be grasping for air. Word is also out that Eminem is introducing PBO at the Harris rally tonight in Detroit.
If their final argument is going to be that Donald Trump is more relatable and likeable than Kamala Harris, they can quit now because the verdict is already in. An AP poll on Morning Joe just a couple of hours ago had Kamala’s favorability (likeability) at 51% and Trump’s at 40%. Her unfavorables are 46% for a +5. He’s at minus 18! But nice try JD, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s like people on Twitter have said — why do the media scrutinize one of Kamala’s temp jobs as a student 40+ years ago more than DonOLD’s missing statements for his medical exams and the missing tax returns?
It’s the sanewashing again, just with different qualifiers this time around.
All they are doing with this nonsense is proving that their followers are puppets who regurgitate a script they are handed every morning. Since the stunt this weekend, they have had to revise the script numerous times from the “thought leaders” saying: “Look! He’s working a full shift at McDonald’s, cooking fries, and meeting customers all day at the drive-through!” to this “of course, it was staged & the customers vetted because YOU tried to kill him 3 times and Secret Service won’t let you try again” that Vance is now regurgitating. They don’t even take their earlier contradictory posts down. And they’ve gone from McDonald’s Corp says she never worked there to the franchise would still have HR records from 1982 for the IRS to WHY WON’T SHE GIVE US HER SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER?
Nothing prior to my law license is on my current resume, not even the teaching position I held while in law school and I was chair of the Department; it’s just not relevant. Listing my part-time high school and college jobs would get my resume tossed – nobody wants to read that stuff. And no, I can’t prove I sold men’s shirts in Filene’s Basement because it doesn’t exist anymore.
These people are nuts
All of this is idiocy but also, JD, you sign a W2 to go on payroll. A W9 is for a business paying another business. If you’re going to reference normal people tax paperwork, perhaps learn what it is.
It’s actually a W-4. W-2 is what you get from your employer when it’s time to file your taxes every year.
LOL who would lie about that??? It’s so stupid. But it’s all they have, she’s run a flawless campaign and doing well, they’re grasping at stupid shit like this. And it’s a distraction from all his clear examples of cognitive decline.
I can SO identify with the look on that woman’s face — standing to the left of Trump in that painfully posed picture.
They are really stuck on her summer working at Mickey D’s, huh? I think it shows how much their other attacks on Kamala have not worked – the idea that she was lying about her race, or lying about her parents or her ideology – it’s so patently untrue and gross, and I think even had the unintentional benefit of urging people to find out more about her! You also notice that they aren’t saying she lied about her record as a prosecutor or about owning a gun – they don’t want that particular comparison, do they?
As for TFG, waddling around that McDonalds food prep area with no hairnet and an apron that somebody had to tie on him, can we talk about how he wouldn’t even get an interview at most McDonald’s franchises? He has multiple felony convictions!
Trump has lied to all three of his wives and cheated on all of them to the point that that they divorced him or he had to pay hush money to a porn star. He lied about paying hush money to a porn star to the point that he lost that court case to her. He lied about sexual assaulting a woman to the point that he lost a case to her and now owes her money. He lied to avoid renting to POC in his apartments to the point that we know that he and his father were/are racists. He lied about the Central Park 5 (now THE EXONERATED 5) to the point that they are now suing him. He lied just recently in one sentence after another where he named one of the victims of January 6th who died and in the next sentence he said “No one died”. He lies like it is necessary for him to breath. Vance is just as bad as he is, if not worse because Vance says it so easily that I think he honestly believes constant lies that come out of his mouth.
They were claiming she was lying the minute she said she previously worked at McDonald’s because they don’t care if it was the truth or not. They just grabbed whatever she said to claim it was a lie just because lying is all they are capable of. She was interviewing to become a lawyer, not to become the manager at a Wendy’s. It was a summer job that has no relevance to what she was aspiring to become. I haven’t had to interview for a job in ages but I definitely wouldn’t add a part time job where I didn’t work for a reasonable amount of time and the requirement to get the job was not being a criminal and being able to breath. It’s a distraction from his dementia, tiredness and obvious lies. We won’t be distracted. Let’s get out and vote so we never have to see or listen to him ever again.
I worked for two different McDonald’s as a teenager. It’s only on my “resume” when I joined the military because that was the only experience I had. I would never put it on a resume for a civilian job.
My very first job in my freshmen year at college was at McDonalds. Never have I ever put that on a resume.
Kaiser, I don’t think I saw a post about Germany giving Biden their highest honor. Did I miss it?
The Washington Free Beacon is a conservative source financially backed by Paul Singer, an American billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican donor.
I suggest people be VERY CAREFULL about believing what’s written here unless you can verify if there are any facts.
Meanwhile Donald has never worked a day in his life and yet they seem fine with it.
I don’t put my summers working in a supermarket on my CV because in France they don’t like when a CV is longer than a page, does it mean that I’m not allowed to talk about that working experience anymore ?
I read the stupidest comment that claimed Donald Trump working a shift at McDonald’s was him showing noblesse oblige.