As Heather Digby Parton notes, Trump is really hammering this McDonald's thing hard and I can't believe it's going to move many (maybe any) votes. The folks who'll believe it matters are the ones who would never not vote for him. I can understand scaring people into thinking Kamala Harris is going to import billions of illegal aliens into your neighborhood but who would feel personally threatened if she fibbed about making fries at McDonald's four decades ago?
I actually don't believe anyone thinks any political candidates tell the truth 100% of the time, not even Trumpers who claim their guy does. If you're for a given candidate, you rationalize their omissions or exaggerations as "This is what they have to say to get elected." And you want them to get elected so you excuse it because their opponent is a bigger liar and one must fight fire with fire. I don't think I've ever for voted for someone who didn't at least color the truth a little. Maybe Jimmy Carter didn't but that might also explain why he lost in 1980.
I have a number of e-mails about this. Bruce Jones wrote me that Harris might be able to dig up Social Security records to show that she was paid by some McDonald's franchisee. Garth Gersten wrote me to say, in part…
Trump got his McDonald's talking point from someone (I forget who) that says Harris did not list McDonald's on her resume when she applied to be a prosecutor, nor at any other time. But, most people don't list fast food jobs they had in high school when they are applying for a job after graduate school, unless they were relevant. And working at a McDonald's for a summer during high school is not relevant to 99% of the jobs out there – unless, perhaps, you were a "manager."
I do not think she would have been required to list it on her application to take the California State Bar, either. I don't recall listing my high school job on my application to the California State Bar.
Yeah. And I never had a McDonald's-type job but my résumé omits about 80% of the things I've done — mostly stuff I didn't think would impress anyone or because it was something I'd like to forget.
As Will Saletan notes in this video listing the Top 10 Stupidest Trump Lines, Trump is now claiming that "someone" (no name given) tracked down the manager of the McDonald's (again, unnamed) where Harris claims she worked and this person remembered that 40+ years ago, she didn't work there. The other nine stupid things are also pretty stupid…
By the way: I'm not following the Eric Adams matter much but if he dunnit — and it's sure sounding like he did — this is another one of those cases where two things would be true of a scandal involving a public official. One falls under the general category of "Gosh, that person broke the law" and the other falls under the heading of "Gosh, that person was stupid to think they could get away with this." Either one is a perfectly fine reason they shouldn't be in power.