I think some of it might come down to what one did with one’s life. Harris worked at McDonalds, but she also went to law school, became a prosecutor, then a senator, then vice president. A lot of stuff has happened since she worked there.
I did study abroad when I was in college and sometimes a friend will mention some event I don’t remember. That’s because it was a bigger deal for them, it was their one big trip overseas. I went on to work in 30 countries, I just had to dump some data from that file.
Reporter: President Trump do you remember the names of the people you worked with on your first job? Trump: Of course I do, unlike lying Camel-la. There was Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV, and Fred.
Maybe it was James Kevin Smith who always went by Kevin to distinguish himself from his father James Monroe Smith. His tax forms and other legal papers say James K. Smith but everybody who met him knew him as Kevin.
(There are a lot of people who genuinely do know me who have no idea what my legal name is.)
My first job was about as long ago as Harris’s, and other than a friend who also worked there I couldn’t tell you anything about anyone I worked with. And the store itself is long gone. And there’s no way I would put “stocking shelves” on a CV once I had enough relevant experience to include.
No one is disputing that you can remember lots of people you worked with for less than a year 30 years ago. I’m sure there are many people who can. There are even a few people who can remember exactly where they were and what they were wearing on a perfectly ordinary date 40 years ago. However, just because you can remember the names of a lot of people doesn’t mean it’s reasonable to expect anyone else to, including Harris. Just like it’s not reasonable for Marilu Henner to expect me to remember where I was and what I was wearing on April 30 1980 just because she can.
I think perhaps that year you worked at Burger King had more significance to you than similar jobs had to me - because I wouldn’t even consider a person I saw a couple of times a week or a month at work for a few months to be a person in my life. I might never have said anything more to them than “goodnight”.
Of jobs held simultaneously or over the same summer, I can tell you
My McD manager’s first name, a couple of conversations with her, her excessive eye makeup, encounters with some junkies drinking coffee with millions of sugar packets, snagging the “too old,” wrapped McMuffins and putting them in my backpack for later.
The name of the person working at the terminal next to me at the newspaper, anecdotes about editing.
The first names of most of my co-workers, supervisors, and the instructors at the summer academic program where I worked, plus conversations and anecdotes.
These were all transient jobs over a summer. I can tell you a great deal more about many people I went to high school and college with, even those I’m no longer in contact with, because what I did in those settings was sustained and mattered to me more.
I’d say that this is less about memory as much as value.
Even if she doesn’t particularly remember most of the details of her time, working at McDonald’s, it’s likely that there was at least one friend there who she remembers, she could probably find the old address, etc. There’s probably things she could do to figure out a few details.
But, let’s imagine that you’re interviewing to be President and reporter 1 is asking about Gaza, reporter 2 is asking about the fiscal deficit, reporter 3 is asking about flood zones, and reporter 4 is asking you what the address of the McDonald’s that you worked at 30 years is. What’s the priority in making sure that you have a strong answer per those specific questions? Despite what people might imagine, you have genuine limits in your day, a limited number of advisors, and a limited amount of headspace. You can’t do everything. So do you pick researching economics or family trivia?
Imagine a friend asking, “Hey @Sitnam, I’m considering spending my free time learning how to save lives. Or, instead, maybe just spending that same time wandering the neighborhood and using tooth picks to make dog turds look like porcupines… Which do you think I should focus my attention on?” Sure, with the latter, maybe it’s sort of funny and cute for a while. But does that actually the most important thing to do?
Just because something is easy, that doesn’t mean that it’s worth doing.
“Like many of you, to help pay for school I took any job I could get. For a time I worked at McDonalds. We’ve all been there. Jeff, showing up 10 minutes late again. Sarah Peterson, that bitch on fries, always complaining. We’ve all worked broiler 7 AM on a Sunday shift with last nights Wop still swimming around your brain.”
My first job was at a tiny neighborhood grocery store with a grill and fountain. I remember the owner’s name because it was part of the store’s name and the store was located one block from my grandmother’s house, one and a half blocks from my other grandmother’s house, and two blocks from where we lived.
There were two other employees, but I don’t remember their names. My wages were 29 cents an hour.
The other thing that I remember is that once when the boss was balancing the cash register, he called me over. “Look at that! Just look at it. You’re a witness.” He had tossed a handful of pennies on the counter and one of them had landed on its side. It wasn’t being propped up by other pennies. It was just sitting there on its side.
I’ll probably remember that longer than anything else about the job.
Do you think we’re all lying about not remembering people from our past jobs? Even if she met someone significant, that doesn’t mean she’d remember anyone else. For instance, I met my wife in French class, but I can’t remember any other person from the class. I kind of remember the teacher’s name. That’s about it. I assure you, I’m telling the truth. I’m not lying about not remembering anyone else for the purpose of a political gain or forum points.
It’s not about not remembering people. It’s about the assumption that people are entitled to this information because…reasons.
It’s not even in the news cycle anymore. At this point, it’s an internet argument over something that’s not important to either campaign.
And that’s actually the main thing. Once she gets sidetracked into providing any sort of corroborating information - forms, names, etc - that gets followed up by people digging into those and finding anything to criticize and having to deal with that criticism and then leading into a vicious spiral.
It’s the same birther and Swift Boat nonsense applied to a friggin’ job at McDonald’s, and people are not entitled a response in a form of their preference. Otherwise, she’d just be constantly responding to this nonsense from the Fox News crowd for the next 2 months whenever they say her responses aren’t sufficient or that there’s some inconsistency in what she said.
Where’d you see this? I’ve seen it mentioned that he also worked at McDonalds , but not that they met there or even that it was the same one where she worked. And it would be pretty unusual for them to have met in the 80s and married in 2014.
This. Emhoff lived in Pennsylvania, then southern California, as a teenager (i.e., nowhere near where Harris lived when she was that ages), and went to college in southern California (undergrad at Cal State - Northridge, JD at USC). Harris is his second spouse, and according to Wikipedia, he met her on a blind date in 2013.
So, now we need corroborating details for things she didn’t even say?
This is exactly what posters have been saying - people feeling entitled to question her on things she didn’t say and things that did not happen based on the questioner’s own shoddy memory/recollection.
I was wondering this myself. I just Googled “Kamala Harris McDonald’s” and the most recent reference was reporting on DJT rambling about it 3 days ago. And yet we’re still talking about it here?
I don’t believe this is true. He also worked at McDonald’s at one point in his life, never did they work together.