Vice President Kamala Harris remains unable to prove her claim she worked at McDonald's while she was a college student, despite repeated taunting from former President Donald Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris hasn't been able to show conclusively that she worked at McDonald's while a student at college.
Her claims she has used to back up her 'middle class' roots lead to frequent taunting from Donald Trump - who even trolled her by doing his own shift in the fast food joint.
'I've now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala at McDonald's,' Trump told reporters and customers after he made French fries and served food out of the drive-thru service window in Pennsylvania.
The Harris campaign maintains that Harris worked at a McDonald's location on Central Avenue in Alameda, California during the summer after her freshman year at Howard University in 1983.
But staff at the restaurant have reportedly been sworn to secrecy and when DailyMail.com contacted them to ask, an employee said 'no, sorry'.
Vice President Kamala Harris remains unable to prove her claim she worked at McDonald's while she was a college student, despite repeated taunting from former President Donald Trump
The New York Times also cited Wanda Kagan, a close high school friend of Harris who remains active in the campaign, as recalling Harris' mother, now deceased, once mentioned that Harris worked at a McDonalds.
Despite Trump's continued torment of Harris on the issue, the vice president and her team have no new information to prove her claim.
Experts noted on social media that Harris could easily access her Social Security tax records from the government to prove her employment at the location.
Social Security keeps records of tax forms for employees working in the United States, 'from 1978 to the present' according to the agency's website.
McDonald's revealed Sunday that they do not have records to verify Vice President Kamala Harris' claim - but praised her 'fond memories' of working at the franchise location.
'[W]e and our franchisees don't have records for all positions dating back to the early '80s,' the company noted in an internal memo that was published online.
The Harris campaign maintains that Harris worked at a McDonald's during the summer after her freshman year at Howard University in 1983. She is pictured when she was younger
She is believed to have worked at the Central Avenue location in Alameda, California
Donald Trump, pictured serving fries at Pennsylvania McDonald's over the weekend, has consistently said Kamala's story of working at the fast food joint said
Harris first made the claim that she used to work at McDonald's in college when protesting with workers to raise the minimum wage in 2019 when she ran for president.
'I worked at McDonald's, I was a student when I was working at McDonald's,' she said detailing on social media that she worked making fries and serving ice cream.
In April 2024, she revisited the subject with the Drew Barrymore show, revealing that she 'did fries' at the restaurant and that her go-to meal was a quarter pounder with cheese.
'I did, yes I did work at McDonalds when I was at school ... I did fries,' she said. 'I did fries and the cashier.'
'I didn't know that about you!' a surprise Barrymore replied.
Harris repeated her claim briefly when a reporter shouted out a question on Monday asking her if she had ever worked there.
'Did I? Yes, I did,' she said before entering her vehicle.
I worked at @McDonalds when I was a student, doing french fries and ice cream. There wasn't a family relying on me to pay the bills — but that's the reality for too many workers today. Proud to stand with @SEIU today for livable wages and a safe working environment. pic.twitter.com/essu9q63JF
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 14, 2019
The Harris campaign also used the line about her working at McDonald's during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, after replacing President Joe Biden as the presidential nominee.
While Harris has no evidence of working at McDonalds, her husband Doug Emhoff spoke about his own experience working at a location and earning employee of the month.
'I still have the framed picture which you just saw, and there was a ring, golden arches and all,' he boasted.
Former President Bill Clinton also mentioned her experience in his DNC Convention speech.
'I'll be so happy when she actually enters the White House as president because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald's,' he joked.
The campaign remains unable to provide evidence to prove the vice president's claim, such as a photo, a pay stub, or a fellow employee that can confirm her employment.
An employee said 'I'm sorry, I don't have any information,' when DailyMail.com contacted the location where Harris claims to have worked on Monday to ask if Harris had ever worked at the franchise location.
A copy of her job resume she submitted after college does not include any information about her job at McDonald's, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Harris campaign has used her claim about working at McDonald's to demonstrate her working class credentials.
'You have a vice president who always thought of the middle class...when she was in college she had a job at McDonald’s while she was getting her degree,' Deputy Communications Director Brooke Goren told reporters at the Democratic National Committee in June.
Another staffer referred to her journey from McDonald's to the vice presidency as 'the incarnation of the American dream.'
After weeks of mocking Harris' claim as false, Trump visited a McDonald's in Pennsylvania on Sunday, putting on an apron, and making several batches of fries in the kitchen.
He then served food to customers at the drive-thru service window.
Harris has tried to move on from the controversy as she made a campaign stop at a more local eatery in Pennsylvania, at the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen in Philadelphia.
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris grabs food from a stop at the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen as she campaigns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
She ordered pastrami on rye and a slice of German chocolate cake, and delivered a speech to rally volunteers for the campaign.
'We all say turn the page on an era that was about trying to have people point fingers at each other trying to suggest there are these issues that divide us when the most fundamental issues we care about unify us,' she said.