Vice President Kamala Harris has mentioned several times on the campaign trail that she worked at McDonald's while she was in college. Fact checkers haven't been able to confirm her claim, and an internal memo from McDonald’s stated that it doesn't have record of Harris working because they lack some records dating back to the 1980s. But fact checkers on the right and left have taken different angles on the same facts of the story, fueling potential misinformation.

What Happened

Harris first mentioned her McDonald's job in 2019 while on a picket line with McDonald's workers in Las Vegas. She said that she worked the cash register and fry and ice cream stations in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983.

Snopes (Lean Left bias) was the first to look into the claim and found it unproven. "Multiple reputable news outlets have reported on the story. But, aside from Harris' testimony itself, there is no evidence (such as a photo, employment record or confirmation from a friend or family member) to independently verify the claim," Snopes said on August 27, 2024. 

On Aug. 29, the Washington Free Beacon (Right bias) noted that the job was absent from both her memoirs and her two biographies. It was also not mentioned on a job application for a law clerk position that asked her to list every position she held in the last 10 years, but she did list a one-month clerical job.

Following the Washington Free Beacon report, some outlets on the left criticized it as grasping at straws. Outlets highlighted that it would not be unusual to leave a part-time summer job off of a post-graduate resume for a law position.

On Aug. 30, former President Donald Trump began saying in interviews and on Truth Social that Harris lied about her employment at McDonald's. Then, Facebook and X posts began popping up claiming that McDonald’s corporate said they had no record of Kamala Harris working there. Simultaneously, other Facebook posts claimed that she had worked there and was fired for stealing. 

Both of these are untrue, given the details we know.

Politifact (Lean Left bias) fact checked the claim that Harris was fired from McDonald’s for stealing as well as the claim that McDonald’s said they have no record of her. The outlet didn’t check the original claim—whether Harris worked there in the first place. This could mislead readers if they only read the headlines and see “McDonald’s has no record of Kamala Harris working there” marked false, a reader may believe that implies there is a record that she worked there, which is untrue. Politifact says at the top of the article, “There is no evidence that McDonald’s has made a public statement contradicting Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments that she worked there.”

USA Today Fact Check (Lean Left bias) published a similar fact check about the claims, saying in one, “But there is no evidence McDonald's has weighed in on the credibility of Harris' statement. There are no credible news reports about the restaurant chain making a statement about Harris, and nothing resembling the statement appears on the chain's social media accounts or website.” USA Today lists their only source for that fact check as a Harris campaign video. 

A McDonald's internal memo published on Oct. 20 said the company was "proud" to hear of Harris' experiences working for McDonald's, though it doesn't "have records for all position dating back to the early '80s."

Slant on Both Sides

The responses of USA Today and Politifact demonstrate a Lean Left slant because the framing of the articles is that McDonald’s did not contradict Harris, implying that Harris is telling the truth unless demonstrated otherwise, and that claims of her having not worked there are false. 

In contrast, the Free Beacon article is slanted to imply that Harris is lying unless evidence is produced to support the claim. The Snopes article is the most balanced framing of what we know, labeling the claim not true or false but “unproven” and includes the context that there is no verifiable evidence and that it has been reported as true by reputable news outlets.

Harris says she worked at McDonald’s, but no confirmation has been found. It is up to you to decide whether articles and tweets about the lack of evidence are an unjustified witch hunt to discredit Harris or if articles fact checking claims that Harris is lying—without knowing whether she was telling the truth to begin with—is evidence of the media protecting Harris from criticism.

Which narrative you are more favorable to may depend on what you view as the role of journalism. Is journalism meant to be adversarial to the government, and therefore should assume that politicians are lying unless there is evidence to support their claim? Or should journalism refrain from reporting on anything unless they have solid evidence, meaning they shouldn’t stir rumors that someone may be lying unless there is proof that the person has done something wrong? 

Clare Ashcraft is the Bridging Coordinator & Media Analyst at AllSides. She has a Center bias. 

Reviewed by Editor-in-Chief Henry A. Brechter (Center bias), Product Manager and Bias Analyst Evan Wagner (Lean Left), and News and Bias Analyst Johnathon Held (Lean Right bias).