 As well, the Secret Service is responsible for protecting the former president, who, of course, is also running for president this year. A former Secret Service director, William Ralph Basham Jr., told NPR that the fact that shots were fired at all was a failure on the Secret Service's part. He says this never should have happened. And the agency is going to have to do an in-depth investigation into how this was able to go down. Now, the Secret Service falls under the Department of Homeland Security.