A conservative news website is getting thoroughly mocked on social media for attempting to gin up some controversy about Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Washington Free Beacon did a deep dive into Harris’ past work at McDonald’s that was breathlessly headlined, “‘I Did Fries’: Kamala Harris Claims She Worked at McDonald’s, but She Never Mentioned It Until She Ran for President. Did She Really Toil Beneath the Golden Arches?”
The Democratic presidential nominee has previously mentioned that she worked at McDonald’s after her freshman year in college to earn extra money.
She discussed the experience in an interview earlier this year with Drew Barrymore, saying, “I did fries, and then I did the [cash register].”
Former President Bill Clinton mentioned Harris’ McDonald’s job during his speech at the Democratic National Convention, joking, “I will 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.”
Harris formerly working at a fast food restaurant may make her relatable to Americans, so apparently, the Beacon wanted to ensure she was on the up-and-up. The article noted that Harris didn’t mention the Mickey D’s gig until a labor rally in June 2019, and it wasn’t mentioned in either of her memoirs.
However, what likely aroused suspicion for the Beacon reporters is that she left her job at Mickey D’s off her October 1987 job application for a law clerk position in the Alameda County district attorney’s office.
The Beacon notes that Harris did list several jobs in a section that asked for every position she had held in the last 10 years, but not McDonald’s.
Snopes was also unable to verify Harris’ employment at McDonald’s. HuffPost also reached out to McDonald’s, which didn’t immediately respond.
A Harris campaign official said on background that the vice president worked at McDonald’s during the summer of 1983 in Alameda, California, where she handled register duties and manned the fry and ice cream machines.
But after Free Beacon editor Peter J. Hasson promoted the story on social media, many people expressed that the publication was grasping at straws to make Harris look bad.
And, yes, there was mockery. And snark. Lots of snark, because, as many people noted, people applying for professional careers usually don’t list their high school or summer jobs in their applications.
Some people wondered if the three authors who wrote the piece had ever actually worked a regular job.
One person ironically noted that Beacon editor Peter Hasson’s LinkedIn resume only goes back to 2021 and doesn’t include any fast food or retail jobs.
But while the Beacon article was brutally mocked, one person credited it with bringing people together, saying, “It’s nice to see Twitter united in the idea it’s idiotic to slam Kamala Harris for not including McDonald’s on her resume when applying for a job as an Attorney.”
CORRECTION: A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that Harris discussed her McDonald’s job with Drew Barrymore in 2019 when the interview actually took place in April 2024.
