Worst-Case Scenario: The U.S. Has None. ‘Constitutional Crisis, Chaos Foreseen if Top Leaders Killed. Imagine the unimaginable: The president, in the White House, the vice president, at the National Observatory, and all Cabinet members, in their respective agency headquarters, are killed in a terrorist attack on downtown Washington. So are all members of Congress, except the few who happen to be out of town.

What happens to the Republic? At the moment, the answer is alarming: chaos.’ Washington Post