Former Secret Service Agent Evy Poumpouras has reached a major milestone in her career. This month, Poumpouras is rolling out the release of her first book, Becoming Bulletproof. Throughout her latest literary work, Poumpouras talks about her upbringing, breaking into the Secret Service and launching a media career. While the book focuses on her life, Beyond Bulletproof is making headlines for its ability to shift focus from her life to the life of a former First Lady.
During a portion of Beyond Bulletproof, the former Secret Service Agent shifts the focus from her life toward former First Lady Michelle Obama. She depicts the "shockingly" racist abuse the former First Lady faced during the Obama administration. From racial slurs to curse words, the former Secret Service Agent says Obama faced “certain kinds of disparagement that none of her predecessors ever faced.”
"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. I remember feeling outraged — after all, it was part of our job to protect the first family mentally as well as physically," she wrote.
"But if the first lady saw the sign, she gave no indication of it. We arrived at the school and she walked out with her head held high, ready to inspire all of the students eagerly waiting for her."
Unfortunately, Poumpouras says the Secret Service directed them not to respond to certain issues. As she explains, the Secret Service was not supposed to intervene unless there was an "imminent" threat of harm toward the former First Lady.
“There’s freedom of speech in the United States, and even if I personally feel that speech is wrong, the law doesn’t give me the power to take that person’s speech away," she told Insider.
“They could say whatever they wanted so long as there was no imminent threat of harm.”
Obama has been fairly open to discussing these matters. While she was able to push through the abuse in order to do her work, it still hurt to endure that level of harassment each and every day as the First Lady.
“The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut,” she said during an interview in 2017.
“Knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won’t see me for what I am because of my skin color.”
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