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Photo of Kamala Harris in a McDonald’s uniform is fake
If Your Time is short
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The edited image substituted Vice President Kamala Harris’ face for that of a woman in a McDonald’s uniform named Suzanne Bernier, who died in 2007.
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An X user took credit for creating the image and said it is fake.
Vice President Kamala Harris has told voters she worked at McDonald’s as a nod to her middle-class upbringing. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said without evidence that she is lying about her experience at the restaurant.
Now some social media users have shared supposed evidence of Harris working at the fast food chain without realizing it was fabricated.
An image posted Oct. 26 to Threads shows a young Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, wearing a McDonald’s uniform. The post is captioned, "Look what I found, Kamala in a McDonalds uniform."
Screenshot from Threads
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This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
But the photo has been digitally modified. The original photo shows a person in the same uniform standing in front of the same furniture; it was posted on a website to memorialize a woman named Suzanne Bernier, who died from breast cancer in 2007 at a hospital in Ontario, Canada.
Some Instagram posts said Democrats had edited the image to prove Harris worked at McDonald’s. However, X user @TheInfiniteDude, who has posted content supporting Trump, took credit for the image. The user first shared the image Oct. 24 with the caption, "This is fake." The user later retweeted it and said, "I made it" and that "in the tweet I’m fact-checking it myself as fake." The user added, "Who removed the context and shared it among democrats?"
We rate the claim that an old photo shows Harris in a McDonald’s uniform False.
Our Sources
Threads post (archived), Oct. 26, 2024
Suzanne Bernier (archived), accessed Oct. 28, 2024
Suzanne Bernier, Kind Words, accessed Oct. 28, 2024
Donohue Funeral Home, Obituary of Suzanne Marie Bernier, Jan. 5, 2016
Instagram post (archived), Oct. 27, 2024
Instagram post (archived), Oct. 27, 2024
X post (archived), Oct. 24, 2024
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Photo of Kamala Harris in a McDonald’s uniform is fake
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