News is still fluid, but police say they shot a man with a gun at the U.S. Capitol on Monday afternoon. Actually, the shooting didn't happen at the Capitol itself but rather a shiny marbled underground visitor center built eight years ago to protect the Capitol from such incidents.  (Washington Post graphics) In 1983, when a bomb ripped open a door where senators congregate, lawmakers started talking about building a center to a) welcome visitors and b) put distance between would-be attackers and the Capitol. The project languished until a gunman blazed through a security checkpoint at the Capitol in 1998 and killed two police officers on his way into the halls of power. A security officer outside the office of then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) told aides to take cover and fought the gunman off before being fatally shot. Construction on the Capitol Visitor Center started in 2000 and finished in 2008. Today, it is massive —with a theater, three auditoriums and the largest cafeteria in Washington. It can hold up to 4,000 tourists. The lockdown at the Capitol has lifted, and police say one bystander suffered minor injuries, though they declined to say how. You can follow the latest here. Is Bernie Sanders gaining momentum?  (Chuck Burton/AP) Over the weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) trounced Hillary Clinton in not one but three contests, beating her by at least 40 points in caucuses in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state. His campaign maintains that everything's going according to plan, with Sanders slowly but surely chipping away at Clinton's lead. Call us skeptical that plan will work. Sanders's win margin over the weekend does speak to his appeal among the Democratic base, but with the exception of Michigan, he is winning in states that, frankly, he should be winning in. Sanders does well in states where the Democratic electorate is mostly white and that hold the more time-consuming caucuses, which tend to favor Sanders's more enthusiastic supporters. When Sanders starts winning in large and diverse states such as California, then we'll talk. Plus, how many states Sanders wins doesn't necessarily matter. Fix Boss Chris Cillizza reminds us of presidential politics 101: The only way to win a Democratic presidential primary in America is to win 2,383 delegates. And Clinton is besting Sanders in that category on two fronts. 1) She has got more delegates than Sanders because she has won the states offering more delegates by larger margins. In fact, she has a bigger lead over Sanders today than Barack Obama did over her in 2008:  (Philip Bump / The Washington Post) 2) She has got hundreds more superdelegates than Sanders, thanks to the 449 elected officials and former elected officials, such as members of Congress, who have pledged their support to her. Sanders has 29 superdelegates on his side. That could make the difference if this race ever got closer than it is now. | 
Twitter
Facebook