With weeks to go until the November 2024 U.S. elections, a rumor that McDonald's Corp. confirmed U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris was once fired from a McDonald's restaurant circulated online.
On Aug. 29, 2024, the Facebook page America - Love It or Leave It posted a meme displaying the words, "McDonald's Corporate Confirms: Kamala Harris DID work for them in the summer of 1981. She was fired for stealing." Above the meme, the page added, "Word came down from the company. Kamala did work there for a few weeks during the summer of 1981. She didn't list it on her resume because of how she left."
One user responding to the meme wrote, "What!!! Wow!!! I can't believe!! She's the nominee for President of United States!! Trump/Vance 2024!! God bless America. Praying." Another reply read, "Well, well just one more character aspect to this infamous person. If the shoe fits!" We also noted a comment reading, "Well that says it all. She stole from McDonald's. She has stole more than that, and now she's trying to Steal from us the American Citizens, and what's very disgusting is, she gets paid for it all, how shocking."
In shares of the post, one user said, "I believe it." Another person claimed, "Stealing! Like they do with taxes!!" A different user posited, "Once a thief..."
In other words, some readers seemed to interpret rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events.
Further, a comment from a page manager for the America - Love It or Leave It Facebook page posted a link to an article about the matter on its associated website named The Dunning-Kruger Times. That story began:
A spokesperson for the McDonald's Corporation has informed ALLOD's journalistic department that they do have a record of Kamala Harris working for their company in the summer of 1981.
She was fired for stealing "a substantial amount" of chicken McNuggets.
"Kamala was reportedly a great employee," said Spokesman Joe Barron, "But she made that fatal error of stealing from the hand that fed her."
However, there was no evidence of McDonald's firing Harris. Rather, the rumor originated with America's Last Line of Defense — a network of Facebook pages and websites that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. For example, the meme itself had a "satire" label in its upper-left corner. The Dunning-Kruger Times' "About Us" page also defined its content as a "network of parody, satire and tomfoolery." Further, the network's Facebook pages displayed a "satire/parody" category label and descriptions reading, "Nothing on this page is real."
The fictional story spread as online users discussed Harris' claims of once working at McDonald's — a matter we previously reported about.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.