Kamala Harris has attempted to convince Americans on the campaign trail that rather than growing up the silver-spooned daughter of an affluent couple afforded the luxury of routinely flying back and forth between pricey homes in two countries, she was alternatively the product and a member of the middle class.

A critical component of this narrative is Harris' claim that she worked at McDonald's in 1983 — a claim not reflected in her past résumés and for which the vice president has produced no evidence.

Democrats and the liberal press have attacked President Donald Trump and others who have suggested that Harris' origin story is bogus. The New York Times dutifully did its part on Oct. 20 but accidentally torpedoed the narrative by naming its only other source besides Harris: a hardcore Harris booster.

At the outset, the Times' Heather Knight and Nicholas Nehamas likened doubts about Harris' politically expedient and unsubstantiated claim to birtherism, then shifted the burden of proof onto Trump:

Vice President Kamala Harris has recalled her stint at a Bay Area McDonald’s 41 years ago in introducing herself to voters — a biographical detail relatable to millions of Americans who have toiled in fast-food restaurants. But former President Donald J. Trump has repeatedly accused her of inventing it. Lacking a shred of proof, he has charged that she never actually worked under the golden arches — recalling his earlier false claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

President Donald Trump masterfully trolled his opponent while tapping into classic Americana last weekend, donning an apron and serving up french fries to supporters at a McDonald's in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania.

'They don't want to report it because they're fake!'

"Now I have worked at McDonald's," Trump told reporters at the drive-through window. "I've now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala. She never worked here."

In the lead-up to his brief stint as a fry cook, Trump repeatedly mocked Harris over her summer job claim, writing on Sept. 1, for instance, "Kamala said she worked at McDonalds — She never did. Lie!"

"She said she worked and grew up in terrible conditions, she worked at McDonald’s. It was such — she never worked there!" Trump told a crowd in Indiana last month. "And these fake news reporters will never report it. They don't want to report it because they're fake! They're fake!"

According to the Times, "Mr. Trump's seeding of doubts about Ms. Harris's story, while insidious and outside the lines of traditional fair play in politics, advances his goal of portraying Ms. Harris as a fraud."

The first time Harris publicly mentioned ever having allegedly worked at McDonald's was reportedly in 2019, when pandering to striking workers in Las Vegas. Harris suggested in September that she worked at the restaurant during college, echoing a campaign ad from the previous month. On another occasion, Harris suggested that she worked at McDonald's to help pay for law school, which she attended several years after leaving Montreal.

The Times produced no verifiable evidence of Harris' claims. Instead, it took the word of Harris, her campaign spokesman, and hearsay from a woman named Wanda Kagan.

As the Washington Free Beacon has noted, the Times portrayed Kagan as a family friend who heard about the McDonald's gig from Harris' deceased mother. The liberal paper neglected to inform readers that Kagan, the only source backing the McDonald's claim besides Harris and her campaign, is herself a Harris booster who has in recent weeks and months actively supported the Democrat's candidacy.

The Times noted only that Kagan was a "friend who had known Ms. Harris as a teenager and remained in touch with the family for years afterward" — a "close friend of Ms. Harris' when they attended high school together in Montreal, [who] said she recalled Ms. Harris having worked at McDonald's around that time."

The reality is that Kagan is much more than an old friend.

The Beacon noted that Kagan served as a surrogate for Harris during the Democratic National Convention, telling MSNBC in August, "It's an emotional and chilling ride, and I'm just overwhelmed with happiness for my friend, and I'm happy to be alive to be able to witness her now fighting for the people of America."

Earlier this month, Kagan posted a video from a Harris campaign event, captioned, "Blessed to be on the stage with @Vp, and the first one she toasts. Cheers to brighter future with @kamalaharris as president!"

Kagan, the partisan whose hearsay is holding up the Times' rebuttal to Trump's criticism, previously told PBS News that she lost touch with Harris after high school.

"I lost touch after she went to college and then I went to college. But then I stayed in touch with her mom still, and — but then I still had a pretty unstable life again, so I was moving a lot, and so I lost her mom's contact number," said Kagan, adding that she didn't reach out directly again until Harris was San Francisco's district attorney.

If secondhand information from a partisan who wasn't in touch with Harris during her college years is the extent of the Times' evidence, then perhaps it is not Trump who "lack[s] a shred of proof."

Spokesman Charlie Stadtlander told the Beacon the Times' Oct. 20 article "was a thoroughly reported and edited piece of independent journalism."

"The Times stands behind it completely," added Stadtlander.

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