Is a photo of Kamala Harris in a blue McDonald's uniform authentic? No, that's not true: A reverse image search proved that the photo has been altered. It never showed Harris. The original image comes from an online gallery of photos posted in 2007 to commemorate a different woman's death.
The claim about the altered photo appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 24, 2024. The caption said:
Look what I found, Kamala in a McDonalds uniform.
Hey MAGA cultists, explain this, I'll wait.
"MAGA cultists" is an unflattering reference to supporters of former President Donald Trump, Harris' Republican opponent for the 2024 presidential race. Trump has accused Harris (archived here) of making up the story that she worked at McDonald's when young.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of the writing of this fact check:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 16:19:38 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search on Google (archived here) for the photo led to an earlier version of the photo on Pinterest (archived here). The woman in this photo was white:
(Source: Pinterest screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 16:30:44 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search of that photo on TinEye.com (archived here) found the photo on a family website (archived here) that is a tribute to Suzanne Bernier, who passed away in 2007. The original image is in the site's "The Growing Years" section. The image has the caption "McDonald's Swing Manager," as seen in this screenshot:
(Source: Regan Family website screenshot taken on Mon Oct 28 16:21:15 2024 UTC)
During her campaign, Harris has spoken of working at McDonald's (archived here) as a student, but there is no record on Google Images (archived here) that her campaign has released an official photo of her time there.
A search on Google Lens and TinEye for images of the Black woman seen in the altered photo on X led to no results.
At the time this was written, the fact-checking organization Snopes also had reviewed the same claim about the altered photo.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Kamala Harris can be found here and on claims regarding the 2024 election can be found here.
