In reference to a 2024 presidential campaign comment, talk show host and comedian Bill Maher joked on Friday that Vice President Kamala Harris called her former employer McDonald’s on election night to ask for her old job back after losing to President-elect Donald Trump.
On a Friday night episode of his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, the host said he would jab Trump and Harris, telling the audience, “We’re going to keep doing jokes here, both sides, right to the end.”
Maher addressed Tuesday’s presidential election when Trump secured the popular vote and the Electoral College. Ahead of the election, polls indicated an extremely tight presidential race, with most aggregates showing Harris leading in the popular vote by narrow margins. Most state polls showed the candidates’ leads fluctuating, almost always within the margin of error.
“For months, Democrats have been saying, ‘How is this even close?’—and they’re right, it wasn’t,” Maher said.
The election proved to be less close than some polls had suggested. Trump won all of the swing states called so far, including Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. He is expected to win Arizona as well, which is still reporting results. As of Saturday morning, he has 301 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 226.
Maher noted that Trump, who garnered more than 74 million votes, increased his vote share among various demographics, “The exit poll said he grabbed 52 percent of white women. He also got their vote.”
Exit polls showed that Trump won majority of white women voters, with 53 percent supporting Trump compared to 45 percent backing Harris.
Maher’s joke is in reference to the Access Hollywood tape released just ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won. The 2005 tape, which is filled with vulgar, sexist, and inappropriate language, notoriously features Trump saying, “Grab ’em by the p****,” while speaking about women.
Maher, while laughing, joked that on election night, “Harris called McDonald’s to see if she could get her old job back.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s and Harris’ campaign for comment via email on Saturday.
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The joke is in reference to what became a notable campaign topic for Harris and Trump.
Harris has said she worked at McDonald’s during the summer of 1983 when she was in college. She has referenced her work there prior to the 2024 presidential campaign, telling striking Las Vegas McDonald’s workers in 2019: “I worked at McDonald’s. I did the French fries and I did the ice cream…If we want to talk about these Golden Arches being a symbol for the best of America, well, the arches are falling short.”
After she became the Democratic nominee following Joe Biden dropping out of the race in July, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff have shared anecdotes about working at the franchise when they were younger.
In her first official campaign ad as a presidential candidate, released in August, a voiceover said, “She grew up in a middle-class home. She was the daughter of a working mom. And she worked at McDonald’s while she got her degree. Kamala Harris knows what it’s like to be middle class.”
As Harris’ campaign gained momentum, Trump and his allies quickly began casting doubt over Harris’ claim, accusing her of lying.
Trump claimed on Truth Social, his social media platform, that Harris “NEVER WORKED THERE,” and added a photoshopped image of Harris wearing a McDonald’s baseball cap.
McDonald’s has not been able to confirm her employment, although The New York Times quoted Wanda Kagan, a friend of Harris, who said she recalled Harris’ mother mentioning that Kamala worked at McDonald’s at the time.
The situation led Trump to make an appearance at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s drive-thru wearing a uniform and manning a frier on October 20 as part of a campaign stop in the critical swing state.