No, Kamala Harris’ campaign didn’t edit an image to show her in a McDonald’s uniform

An altered photo appearing to show Vice President Kamala Harris in a McDonald’s uniform recently spread on social media as evidence the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee fabricated part of her résumé by saying she worked at the fast-food franchise. 

Former President Donald Trump has said without evidence that Harris lied about her employment history, and some people presented the image as confirmation of this accusation. 

The original photo is easy enough to find: 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.

In the edited image, it’s Harris’ face, not Bernier’s. On Oct. 28, PolitiFact rated False a Threads post claiming this image depicted Harris in a McDonald’s uniform. 

Now, some social media users are saying that Harris’ campaign is responsible for the sloppy photo editing job. 

"The Kamala campaign is so desperate they Photoshop her from here," said a man in a video showing the altered image next to the original. Text over the video said: "Kamala campaign’s photoshops her with a McDonald’s uniform!!"

An Oct. 27 Instagram post sharing the video 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.)

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

Harris’ campaign didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post. 

But an X account with the handle @TheInfiniteDude that’s associated with an Arizona-based "video and web content production agency" posted the altered image Oct. 24 with this caveat: "This is fake." 

A few days later, the account claimed credit for it. 

"This tweet is the first instance of this Kamala photo on the internet, because I made it, and in the tweet I’m fact-checking it myself as fake," the Oct. 28 post said. 

The account followed up later that day, saying it was responsible for the image and another computer-generated image appearing to show former President Donald Trump under arrest.

"Both were instantly debunkable," the post said. "Both spread like wildfire. Why? Because we’ve entered an era where truth matters less than the stories we choose to believe." 

The image is fake, and we rate claims the Harris’ campaign edited it to show the vice president in a McDonald’s uniform False.