First Read: “A reminder: It’s been 16 days since Hillary Clinton became her party’s presumptive presidential nominee, but Bernie Sanders still hasn’t conceded the race (nor has he endorsed Clinton). By contrast, Clinton officially conceded four days after Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee in 2008. We’re pointing this out, because Sanders yesterday — for the first time — acknowledged he won’t be the Dem nominee.”

“It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee, so I’m not going to determine the scope of the convention. I’ve given a few speeches in my life. It would be nice to speak at the Democratic National Convention. If for whatever reason they don’t want me to speak, then whatever.”

— Sen. Bernie Sanders, quoted by the Washington Post.

Washington Post: “Although Hillary Clinton has clinched the party’s nomination, Sanders retains one of the trappings of a top-notch candidate: A team of agents still guards him at his home, where they’ve constructed a small watch station on the property. They travel with him on commercial and charter flights and use a motorcade to whisk him through cities he visits. And they marched alongside him during a gay-pride event here in his home town after the Orlando shootings. Such round-the-clock protection can cost taxpayers more than $38,000 a day.”

Rick Klein: “Leave it to this candidate, and leave it to this political year, to create a new variety of candidacy. After his speech to supporters Thursday night, Bernie Sanders is still an active candidate for president. But that doesn’t mean he’s engaging in any campaign activity. He stated clearly that he wants to defeat Donald Trump. But, since he declined to endorse someone (can’t imagine who) actually running against him in the general election, he’s not yet saying how he wants to accomplish that.”

“The broad goals of his ‘political revolution’ – fighting for the working class, galvanizing a generation, even reforming the Democratic Party – might be things that Hillary Clinton and her team can get behind. But coming from a candidate who was beaten by Clinton in every measurable way – and, if the reminder is needed, never wanted to even be a Democrat until a year ago – Sanders is in danger of losing the leverage he accumulated relatively fast. The party would not countenance Clinton doing what Sanders is now; that’s an undeniable fact, as anyone who remembers 2008 would know. The question now becomes how long Sanders can keep his revolution going without wearing out his welcome.”

Sahil Kapur: Sanders’ long refusal to endorse Clinton hurts his leverage

Sen. Bernie Sanders signaled “that he was winding down his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he did not explicitly quit the campaign or endorse rival Hillary Clinton,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

Said Sanders: “The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly. And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time.”

Politico: “Delivering his first speech to supporters in a week — an uncharacteristically long period of silence for a campaign built around massive rallies throughout the country — Sanders got as close as he has to acknowledging that Clinton has won, but he devoted the bulk of his remarks to outlining the “political revolution” he has been stumping for over the past year.”

“Hillary Clinton’s campaign isn’t considering primary rival Bernie Sanders as her running mate, but is actively looking at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose populist politics line up closely with Mr. Sanders,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The vetting remains in its early stages. So far, potential candidates have been scrutinized using publicly available information. The Clinton team hasn’t asked anyone to submit tax returns or other personal information.”

Other prospective candidates: Labor Secretary Tom Perez, HUD Secretary Julián Castro; Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-CA) and Tim Ryan (D-OH).

First Read: “Well, the 2016 primary season came to an end last night with Hillary Clinton beating Bernie Sanders in DC, 79%-21%. And it came to an end without Sanders conceding or endorsing Clinton, although the two met last night and released positive-sounding statements.”

“Here’s the reality: Sanders hasn’t played his hand well. Many of his demands from yesterday (wanting Debbie Wasserman Schultz out of the DNC, ending superdelegates, having more open primaries) seem small. By not conceding a race he trails by every measure possible, he seems even smaller. And smaller still is the real leverage he holds, especially after losing eight out of the last 11 contests, after Obama and Warren have already endorsed Clinton, and after polls show Clinton increasing her lead over Trump.”

“The irony here is that Sanders already won — he performed better than anyone imagined, and he already effectively moved Clinton and her campaign to the left. But one of the arts in politics is declaring victory after you’ve already won. But Sanders continues to march on… “

A new study from the Shorenstein Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government found that Sen. Bernie Sanders received the most “overwhelmingly positive” media coverage of any presidential candidate.

“The Democratic race in 2015 received less than half the coverage of the Republican race. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was largely ignored in the early months but, as it began to get coverage, it was overwhelmingly positive in tone. Sanders’ coverage in 2015 was the most favorable of any of the top candidates, Republican or Democratic. For her part, Hillary Clinton had by far the most negative coverage of any candidate. In 11 of the 12 months, her ‘bad news’ outpaced her ‘good news,’ usually by a wide margin, contributing to the increase in her unfavorable poll ratings in 2015.”

The study also confirmed “the me­dia’s ex­cess­ive and of­ten un­crit­ic­al cov­er­age of Don­ald Trump in the run-up to the primar­ies played a ma­jor role in his ex­plos­ive polit­ic­al rise.”

Politico: “His team is stepping up its behind-the-scenes conversations with Hillary Clinton’s camp. He hasn’t sent a fundraising email for his own campaign in six days. He’s also not holding a rally tonight, making it the first Tuesday with voting that he hasn’t held one this year.”

“In other words, Bernie Sanders isn’t really running for president anymore.”

“But he hasn’t officially given up either. He still has a skeleton staff, a Secret Service detail, a charter plane contract, and the firmly held belief that by formally staying in the race he has the leverage to exact platform and party rules concessions from Clinton.”

First Read: “No one is 100% sure how President Obama’s meeting with Bernie Sanders will go at 11:15 am ET at the White House, but it sure seems like Democrats are unifying in a more orderly manner than Republicans are. After he meets with the president, Sanders huddles with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid at 2:00 pm ET.”

And note this dispatch from NBC’s Chris Jansing: “Last night, Bernie Sanders called members of his senior staff and longtime aides to his house for a meeting that included Jeff Weaver, Tad Devine, Michael Briggs, Shannon Jackson and others. He’s now said to be in a positive frame of mind and focused on Thursday’s meetings — some of the good feeling apparently motivated … by Biden’s ‘we should be graceful’ comment, but I also got a very positive reaction to [Obama’s remarks to Jimmy Fallon] giving Sanders props for bringing ‘new ideas’ and tremendous energy to the campaign.”

Rick Klein: “There’s a question that’s been puzzling Democratic operatives, both inside and outside the Clinton campaign, for weeks now: What does Bernie want? That is to say, now that it’s overwhelmingly obvious he won’t get what he really wants, what will Bernie Sanders settle for? The time has come for him to sort through the conflicting advice of his advisers and get over any personal affronts to chart a new path forward. He’s earned the right to something, and something more than a party platform can deliver. As dangerous as he was to Hillary Clinton’s campaign before is as powerful as he can be for the Democratic Party now. But first he needs to decide and enunciate what he actually wants.”