On Sunday, the NY Times attempted to defend Kamala Harris’s claim that she worked at McDonald’s – claiming that her deceased mother told a high school friend about the job.

“Donald Trump has claimed without evidence that Ms. Harris never worked at the fast-food chain,” reads the report. “Her campaign and a friend say she did.”

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Wanda Kagan was described by the Times as “a close friend of Ms. Harris’s when they attended high school together in Montreal,” who Harris’ mother told “about the summer job years ago.”

Yet, as the Free Beacon now reveals, Kagan wasn’t just a ‘close friend from high school’ – she’s a full blown Harris surrogate who has appeared alongside the vice president at several campaign stops.

“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 in August during the Democratic convention.

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. –Free Beacon

According to PBS News, Kagan was not in touch with Harris when she allegedly worked for McDonald’s, but said that she stayed in touch with Harris’ 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,” she said.

Harris and Kagan

Kagan and Harris are more than just casual friends. When Kagan claims she was physically and sexually abused by her stepfather, Harris pressed her to move in with her own family – something she’s spoken about on the campaign trail.

“This is one of the reasons I became a prosecutor—to protect people like Wanda—because I believe everyone has a right to safety, to dignity, and to justice,” said Harris.

Shifting Narratives

The Free Beacon also points out that Harris has changed her story about McDonald’s. First, her campaign said she held the job to pay her way through college at Howard University. Then, they said she worked there in the summer of 1983 – after her freshman year of college – for extra spending money.

Interestingly, the night before the NYT report dropped, Kagan was at the White House to celebrate Harris’s birthday – posting a clip of Stevie Wonder performing at the event with the caption, “Friends together for her birthday.”

Why didn’t the Times note that Kagan and Harris remain close friends?