Would You Like Proof With That? The Curious Case of Kamala's Summer at McDonald's

A New York Times report on Sunday that equated skepticism about Vice President Kamala Harris’s claim to have worked at McDonald’s with birtherism was based in large part on a source—a friend of Harris’s—who said that Harris’s late mother told her about the job.

"Donald Trump has claimed without evidence that Ms.

Harris never worked at the fast-food chain," the paper said. "Her campaign and a friend say she did."

Meet Wanda Kagan, Harris’s high school classmate and longtime girlfriend, whom the Times described as "a close friend of Ms. Harris’s when they attended high school together in Montreal." Kagan, per the Times, "said that Ms. Harris’s mother, who died in 2009, had told Ms. Kagan about the summer job years ago."

What the Times did not tell its readers is that Kagan is a full-throated Harris supporter who has appeared alongside the vice president at several campaign events. She also served as a surrogate for her old friend on television during the Democratic National Convention.

"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," Kagan told MSNBC during the Democratic convention in August.

Kagan is the first living person to step forward in the seven weeks since a Free Beacon investigation first raised doubts about Harris's claim to say that Harris worked at McDonald's. Kagan…  's claim, that she heard about McDonald's from Harris's mother, cannot be verified because Harris's mother is dead. To date, the Harris campaign itself has not produced a single person with firsthand knowledge of Harris's McDonald's job, other than Harris herself.

Kagan was not in touch with Harris when she allegedly worked at McDonald’s but told PBS News that she had stayed in touch with Harris's mother during that time.

"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," Kagan said.