McDonald’s corporate office is unlikely to provide further details regarding Vice President Kamala Harris‘ employment in the early 1980s, one of the burger chain’s franchisees told Newsweek.
The fast-food behemoth typically eschews wading directly into U.S. politics — with Sunday’s internal message to owner-operators marking the first time the company had addressed Harris’ references to working at a California McDonald’s decades earlier while in college.
“McDonald’s tries hard to stay out of politics,” the franchisee, who owns multiple locations and wished to remain anonymous, said in an interview.
“The email [Sunday] was the first time anything was mentioned. I do not think McDonald’s has any desire sorting through any type of files to find out if this is true.”
Even if they wanted to, the franchisee doubts McDonald’s corporate executives have any way to verify Harris’ employment records from 41 years ago, since most owner-operators generally keep former crew rosters for seven years, or only as long as they’re legally required to do so for tax or other legal purposes.
Vice President Kamala Harris disembarks Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on October 21, as her employment at McDonald’s decades earlier has been questioned by former President Donald Trump.
JACQUELYN MARTIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
“I do not think McDonald’s has any desire sorting through any type of files to find out if this is true,” the franchisee said of Harris’ former job at McDonald’s. “Personally speaking, I don’t believe I have any records prior to seven years. That’s just not something that we keep.”
To definitively prove she worked at the McDonald’s at 715 Central Avenue in Alameda, California during the summer of 1983 while enrolled at Howard University, as her campaign has said, Harris could theoretically release an old paystub or tax return if she earned enough money, and if she kept such records herself.
The vice president could also debunk former President Trump’s claim, offered without evidence, that she didn’t work at McDonald’s by releasing photographs from crew events or via interviews with former coworkers, the franchisee said, though that also assumes she kept in touch with colleagues from four decades ago.
“You’d either have to have a picture, people remember you or probably some type of IRS involvement to look at historical W-2s/taxes,” the franchisee added. “McDonald’s definitely wants to stay neutral and out of the political talk.”
Former president Donald Trump works the counter during a campaign event at a McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, on October 20. Without evidence, Trump has repeatedly claiming Harris never worked at the fast-food giant, contrary to statements she’s made during the campaign and while running for president in 2019
Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Image
Neither the Harris campaign nor the McDonald’s corporate office have responded to multiple inquiries seeking additional details about Harris’ employment. The company said in a statement to franchise owners Sunday that the brand had become a “fixture of the conversation” during the election cycle.
“Though we are not a political brand, we’ve been proud to hear former President Trump’s love for McDonald’s and Vice President Harris’s fond memories working under the Arches,” the statement read. “While we and our franchisees don’t have records for all positions dating back to the back to the early ’80s, what makes ‘1 in 8’ so powerful is the shared experience so many Americans have.”
Roughly one in eight Americans have been employed by the Golden Arches, the company claims. It hires about a million people every year.
Harris has said she worked the cash register, as well as the ice cream machine and fryer at the restaurant, but few additional details have been released, including when her employment ended.
Wanda Kagan, who knew the vice president as a teen as they attended high school in Montreal, Canada, stayed in touch with her family for years and recalled Harris working there in the early 1980s, the New York Times reported this week.
Kagan told the outlet that Harris’ mother, who died in 2009, told her about the job years ago. Kagan also worked at one of the franchises herself, she said.
“That’s what us regular folks did,” Kagan told the Times via email. “We didn’t talk much about our McDonald’s days back then.”
A message seeking comment from Kagan Tuesday was not immediately returned, but she posted a photograph of herself with Harris to mark the vice president’s 60th birthday on Sunday.
“We’ve shared almost 45 years of laughter, love, and memories — three-quarters of your life!” Kagan wrote on Facebook. “From an ordinary friendship to something extraordinary, I’m so grateful for every moment we’ve had together.”
Repeated messages seeking additional details from the franchisee of 715 Central Avenue have not been returned.
The family that operates the Central Avenue location also owns the second McDonald’s in Alameda, as well as several dozen other franchises throughout California. The family was named as a Golden Arch Award winner — McDonald’s highest recognition for franchisees — earlier this year.
