{"id":2334256,"date":"2024-08-30T12:15:02","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T16:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-kamala-harris-a-fast-food-fraud\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T12:21:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T16:21:54","slug":"is-kamala-harris-a-fast-food-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-kamala-harris-a-fast-food-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Kamala Harris A Fast-Food Fraud?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fis-kamala-harris-a-fast-food-fraud%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2334256&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The passage critiques Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217;s claims about \u200dher past employment at McDonald\u2019s during her college \u2062years, \u2064suggesting that \u200bshe has embellished her experience for political gain. The author notes that her alleged time as a fry cook was not mentioned in her earlier \u200cmemoirs \u200dor public records until she ran \u2064for president in 2019, raising questions about its authenticity. \u200dThe\u200c piece contrasts Harris&#8217;s portrayal of her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-raises-minimum-wage-for-fast-food-workers\/\" title=\"California increases minimum wage for fast-food workers.\">fast-food job<\/a> as part\u2064 of her humble\u2063 background with the lack of prior acknowledgment of this experience, implying that she might be using it to counteract perceptions of elitism.<\/p>\n<p>The author shares personal anecdotes\u2064 about working in fast \u2064food, portraying it as a challenging environment marked \u200dby difficult customers\u200c and low wages, all while emphasizing the disparity \u2062between their \u2064experiences and Harris&#8217;s narrative. The tone is skeptical and critical, suggesting that \u2062Harris&#8217;s alleged work at McDonald&#8217;s is more a \u200dpolitical tool than \u200da genuine reflection\u200c of her\u200b past. the article underscores the tensions between political imagery \u200cand personal history, leading to broader questions about authenticity in political narratives.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>I never served in the military, but I did serve under the Golden Arches at McDonald&rsquo;s. Kamala Harris apparently did neither, based on the available evidence, and her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2024\/08\/16\/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-at-a-campaign-event-in-raleigh-nc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent claims<\/a> to be a fry cook in college seem to be the fast-food version of stolen valor.<\/p>\n<p>You would think a socialist senator who worked at McDonald&rsquo;s would make her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/chick-fil-a-ranked-americas-favorite-restaurant-for-8th-consecutive-year\/\" title=\"Chick-Fil-A Ranked America\u2019s Favorite Restaurant for 8th Consecutive Year\">fast-food experience<\/a> a defining episode in her political memoir, not to mention a staple of her multiple campaigns in California&rsquo;s Bay Area. But her stint as a minimum-wage cashier representing the American franchise wasn&rsquo;t mentioned until she first ran for president in 2019, and the story was absent from both of her memoirs, <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/elections\/i-did-fries-kamala-harris-claims-she-worked-at-mcdonalds-but-she-never-mentioned-it-until-she-ran-for-president-did-she-really-toil-beneath-the-golden-arches\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to the Washington Free Beacon.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;McDonald&rsquo;s boasts that one in eight Americans has worked at the fast food chain, and Harris, whose campaign is light on policy and heavy on image, has been using her fast food job to portray what the Washington Post, in a credulous piece this month on the Harris-McDonald&rsquo;s connection, described as &lsquo;her humble background,&#8217;&rdquo; the Beacon reported. &ldquo;For decades,&rdquo; however, &ldquo;Harris never mentioned it, not on the campaign trail nor in two books. It&rsquo;s absent from a job application and r&eacute;sum&eacute; she submitted a year after she graduated from college.&rdquo; Even &ldquo;third-party biographers did not write about it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The first mention of her alleged time as a McDonald&rsquo;s employee came in 2019, when she told a labor rally in Las Vegas she &ldquo;was a student when I was working in a McDonald&rsquo;s,&rdquo; according to the Free Beacon. After the Harris campaign was asked about the details of her early r&eacute;sum&eacute;, the Beacon reported, aides changed her story in a statement to Politico, claiming she took a &ldquo;summer job&rdquo; to earn extra cash, not to pay for school.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is possible that Harris did indeed work at McDonald&rsquo;s in the early 1980s,&rdquo; the Beacon wrote. &ldquo;But the absence of that detail in public records and her campaign&rsquo;s coyness and refusal to provide any further <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-york-times-is-ony-interested-in-one-presidents-tax-returns\/\" title=\"The New York Times focuses solely on one president&#039;s tax returns\">details raise questions<\/a> about what is now a foundational narrative.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Harris likely embellished a fast-food resume to escape characterizations of West Coast elitism. The vice president, however, almost certainly never became the target of customer pranks or had angry patrons throw cheap meat at her.<\/p>\n<p>When I worked the drive-thru in high school, people around town would do something called &ldquo;tea bombing,&rdquo; wherein customers would pull up to the pick-up window after ordering an iced tea and would aggressively grab the cup with both hands to explode the liquid back in the window. This never happened to me, but it happened to my brother and colleagues a handful of times, and they were especially frustrated when the tea was ordered &ldquo;sweet.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>My brother and I didn&rsquo;t even work in a trashy neighborhood. We were in the same development park as the Bob Evans where Ohio Gov. John Kasich apparently bought his pancakes every other morning, not more than 10 minutes from his house. But most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/californias-20-minimum-wage-prompts-89-of-fast-food-restaurants-to-cut-hours-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"California&#039;s  minimum wage prompts 89% of fast-food restaurants to cut hours - Washington Examiner\">fast-food jobs<\/a> obviously suck, and ours was no different in terms of working for a trashy manager selling trash food for trash wages at trash hours while smelling like trash. No matter how many times we washed our uniforms, the stench of McDonald&rsquo;s grease followed us home while the long hours serving &ldquo;Happy Meals&rdquo; were evident by the pimples that bubbled up across our faces.<\/p>\n<p>I can only imagine how Harris might have been as a colleague in the trenches of the drive-thru waxing poetically eloquent about &ldquo;what could have been&rdquo; and &ldquo;what can still be.&rdquo; Now, as a major party candidate for president, she can be &ldquo;unburdened by what has been,&rdquo; whatever that means. She&rsquo;s so <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/13\/kamala-harris-quotes-as-motivational-posters-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">motivational<\/a>. But sometimes other employees would smoke marijuana by the dumpster, where she might have been a major <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/10\/09\/kamala-harris-laughs-at-marijuana-use-despite-putting-1560-people-away-for-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">buzzkill<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald&rsquo;s is where I saw the American obesity epidemic play out up close. Colleagues often put on weight because of the constant access to cheap and addictive food. The same customers, meanwhile, rolled through the pick-up windows on a routine basis. Our location wasn&rsquo;t struggling, but it&rsquo;s often these regulars at fast-food chains who keep the stores afloat. <\/p>\n<p>The fast-food industry isn&rsquo;t about bringing in new customers. The game is about maintaining repeat users. A broken ice cream machine would often throw these users into a rage, like a coke addict deprived of his daily fix. Any inconvenience from the convenience food industry felt like an offense to the community hooked on our hyper-processed products.<\/p>\n<p>I&rsquo;m not offended by Harris&rsquo; r&eacute;sum&eacute; embellishment. Just about everybody in the service industry would probably agree these are the kinds of jobs they&rsquo;d wish everyone would have to work someday before climbing the career ladder.<\/p>\n<p>But it&rsquo;s amazing that Harris never offered proof for something so easily verifiable when accused of lying about her employment for Ronald McDonald. Given how easy it is for Democrats to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/09\/19\/heres-the-full-list-of-every-lie-joe-biden-has-told-as-president-part-four\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lie<\/a> these days, I&rsquo;m surprised more haven&rsquo;t claimed to be veterans of the Golden Arches.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan&#8217;s email newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/socialjusticeredux.substack.com\/about\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I haven&#8217;t served in the military, but I did work at McDonald&#8217;s. Based on the evidence, it seems Kamala Harris hasn&#8217;t done either, and her recent assertions about being a fry cook in college appear to be a fast-food equivalent of stolen valor. One would expect that a socialist senator with experience at McDonald&#8217;s would highlight that job as a significant part of her political narrative, especially during her campaigns in California&#8217;s Bay Area. However, she only mentioned her time as a minimum-wage cashier when she ran for president in 2019, and this experience was notably absent from both of her memoirs, according to the Washington Free Beacon.<\/p>\n<p>McDonald\u2019s claims that one in eight Americans has worked there, and Harris has been using her fast-food job to craft an image of having a &#8220;humble background,&#8221; as described by the Washington Post. Yet for decades prior to this revelation, she never brought it up on the campaign trail or included it in two books. It wasn&#8217;t even listed on a job application or r\u00e9sum\u00e9 submitted shortly after graduating from college. Even biographers have overlooked this detail.<\/p>\n<p>The first time she mentioned working at McDonald&#8217;s was during a labor rally in Las Vegas in 2019 when she stated that she &#8220;was a student when I was working at McDonald\u2019s.&#8221; After inquiries about her early r\u00e9sum\u00e9 arose, aides modified her story for Politico by stating it was merely a &#8220;summer job&#8221; for extra cash rather than school expenses.<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s possible Harris did work at McDonald&#8217;s during the early &#8217;80s, the lack of public records and her campaign&#8217;s reluctance to provide more information raises doubts about what is now considered an essential part of her narrative.<\/p>\n<p>In essence, it seems Harris may have exaggerated aspects of her fast-food experience to counter perceptions of elitism associated with West Coast politics. However, it&#8217;s unlikely that she faced customer pranks or had angry patrons throw food at her like many employees do.<\/p>\n<p>During my own time working drive-thru while still in high school\u2014where customers sometimes engaged in antics like \u201ctea bombing\u201d\u2014I witnessed firsthand how challenging fast-food jobs can be despite not being located in an undesirable area. Most fast-food positions are tough; we dealt with demanding managers selling low-quality food for meager wages while constantly smelling like grease despite our best efforts to stay clean.<\/p>\n<p>I can only imagine how Harris might have behaved among colleagues during those shifts\u2014perhaps philosophizing about missed opportunities while others sought relief from stress through smoking near dumpsters where she&#8217;d likely disapprove.<\/p>\n<p>Working at McDonald\u2019s also gave me insight into America\u2019s obesity crisis; many coworkers gained weight due to easy access to cheap food while regular customers kept returning day after day\u2014a crucial aspect keeping these establishments afloat since they rely heavily on repeat business rather than attracting new clientele.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not offended by Harris&#8217; embellishments regarding past employment; most people who\u2019ve worked service jobs probably wish everyone could experience them before advancing their careers. <\/p>\n<p>However, it&#8217;s surprising that Harris hasn\u2019t provided any proof regarding such easily verifiable claims amid accusations concerning dishonesty about working for Ronald McDonald\u2014especially considering how prevalent lying seems among politicians today; one might expect more individuals claiming similar experiences under those Golden Arches.<\/p>\n<p>Tristan Justice serves as The Federalist&#8217;s western correspondent and authors Social Justice Redux\u2014a conservative newsletter focused on culture and wellness topics\u2014and has contributed pieces across various platforms including The Washington Examiner and Fox News after graduating from George Washington University with degrees related primarily towards political science journalism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2334257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/392123657_959fa6c2b8_o-e1724957250309.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[13133,38721,39754,32438,37043],"class_list":["post-2334256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-fast-food","tag-food-industry","tag-fraud-allegations","tag-kamala-harris","tag-political-debate"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/392123657_959fa6c2b8_o-e1724957250309.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2334256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2334257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2334256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2334256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2334256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}