Michelle Obama’s former Secret Service agent tells of racist encounters
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras (Instagram – @evypoumpoura)
A former Secret Service agent who helped protect Michelle Obama said she felt bad because she could do nothing to prevent the racial abuse that the former first lady was subjected to routinely.
Evy Poumpouras was an agent in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during both Bush administrations as well as the Clinton and Obama presidencies. She poured her thoughts on her career into her 2020 memoir,
Becoming Bulletproof.
Poumpouras indicates Obama was treated differently by a segment of the U.S. population despite her designation as a dignitary.
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Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras has revealed that one of the hardest parts of her job was not being able to intervene when racist slurs were hurled at former first lady Michelle Obama.
Apart from the Obamas, Ms Poumpouras also served on the security details of George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W Bush during her 12 years in the Secret Service.
Ms Poumpouras wrote in her 2020 memoir
Becoming Bulletproof that she could “remember feeling outraged” when she saw a sign with a racist message aimed at the then-first lady.
“As the first Black First Lady of the United States, Mrs Obama had to withstand certain kinds of disparagement that none of her predecessors ever faced,” she wrote. “I was on her protective detail when we were driving to a school to deliver a speech, we passed someone on a bridge holding up a shockingly racist sign directed at her.”
"As the first Black First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Obama had to withstand certain kinds of disparagement that none of her predecessors ever faced."
Michelle Obama’s former secret service agent
Evy Poumpouras says an upsetting part of her previous job was not being able to protect the former first lady from racial slurs or signs while on duty.
“As the first Black First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Obama had to withstand certain kinds of disparagement that none of her predecessors ever faced,” Poumpouras wrote in her 2020 memoir Becoming Bulletproof. “I was on her protective detail when we were driving to a school to deliver a speech; we passed someone on a bridge holding up a shockingly racist sign directed at her.”
Theo Wargo/WireImage via Getty Images, Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
A former Secret Service agent says she couldn t defend Michelle Obama from racist verbal attacks.
Evy Poumpouras told Insider she could do nothing when witnessing racist comments.
Poumpouras book, Becoming Bulletproof, details her time in the Secret Service.
The former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras says an upsetting part of her previous job was not being able to protect Michelle Obama from racist slurs or signs while on duty.
Poumpouras served on the presidential protective division for the first lady and President Barack Obama during their time at the White House. She also protected George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush during her 12 years in the Secret Service.