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Greek-American Ex-Secret Service Agent Opens Up About Michelle Obama

Secret Service
Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras with Michelle Obama. Credit: Instagram/@evypoumpouras

Evy Poumpouras is a Greek-American ex-Secret Service agent who published a tell-all memoir in April 2020 of her experiences working in the White House.

The novel, named “Becoming Bulletproof,” includes stories from Poumpouras’ experiences shadowing Michelle Obama and the shocking racial abuse she faced as first lady.

Stories from the Secret Service

In the book, Poumpouras shares that although the Secret Service are tasked with protecting the President and his family, there are limits to what they can do. Shielding the Obamas both physically and mentally was part of her job, but she couldn’t override civilians’ usage of their freedom of speech.

The ex-Secret Service agent recounted a particularly difficult incident involving the former first lady, which is just one of the many “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. 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,” wrote Poumpouras of the extremely strong former first lady.

Poumpouras also detailed how difficult it was for her to sit and watch the Obamas get treated abhorrently without being able to do anything about it.

Inspiring Greek-American

As a Secret Service agent for over 12 years, Poumpouras has a lot of experience with high stakes protection services. She served on the Secret Service’s Presidential Protective Division for President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and has also protected presidents George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, and George H.W. Bush.

She was also a first responder at the tragic 9/11 terror attacks and her incredible bravery and dedication to protecting everyone she could led to her being bestowed the United States Secret Service Valor Award.

Her writing “Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, Live Fearlessly,” seems to have been the latest a long line of unbelievable accomplishments.

Speaking with neomagazine.com, Poumpouras detailed how she went from being the child of Greek immigrants to being in the position of protecting Obama.

Her mother is from Kilkis, Macedonia and her father is from Mesta, Chios — but she was able to make it in the White House.

When asked how she was able to start her law enforcement journey as a criminal investigator and quickly progress to becoming an interrogator for the Secret Service’s elite polygraph unit, Poumpouras was very humble.

Poumpouras responded, “It’s hard work followed by hard work, and then more hard work. I never had a sense of entitlement that something should be handed to me, nor did I wait for anyone to give me anything. In the Greek community where I grew up, you are expected to fit into a certain role as a young woman. I never bought into the mindset that because I was a girl I could, or rather should, only do certain things. So the more I was told to “stay in that box” the more I defied it. For me it was about drive and passion. I still have it, even now transitioning into a career in television as a co-host of Bravo’s new show Spy Games and working as a multi-media journalist. If you want something you have to put in the time – and the heart.”

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