IT WAS A stunning lapse in security, and one with nearly fatal consequences: how did a sniper mount an unsecured rooftop with a direct line of sight to Donald Trump, who was standing a mere 150m away? Based on video footage, it looks like Mr Trump was millimetres from death—saved by a lucky turn of the head seconds before Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania, fired at him. Crooks killed a rally-goer before being fatally shot himself.
Now the Secret Service, the agency responsible for guarding former and current presidents and their families, as well as major candidates for the presidency, is in the proverbial line of fire. “An incident like this cannot happen,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, who called it a “failure”. Lawmakers plan to grill the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, on July 22nd, and hold an inquiry into the “inexcusable” breach at Mr Trump’s rally. The agency will boost the former president’s detail, and assign one to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a third-party candidate whose father was assassinated while seeking the Democratic nomination in 1968. What is the Secret Service, and what explains its glaring failure?