What Bernie wants

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Will Sanders' 'revolution' continue to divide Democrats?

Democratic presidential candidate doubles down on his promise to battle all the way to the convention

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On the roster: What Bernie wants - Hillary to knock Trump on his business woes - The Judge’s Ruling: In praise of pains in the neck - Burn out

WHAT BERNIE WANTS
Just because you’re a socialist doesn’t mean you don’t know how to negotiate.

But the question is what Bernie Sanders wants in exchange for an endorsement of his party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton. At a White House meeting with President Obama today, Sanders will no doubt receive congratulations, but also lay out the terms and timing of his surrender.

And to be sure, there is a lot for which Sanders can be congratulated. He fared better than any Democratic runner up in recent history, except, of course, Clinton herself in her 2008 bid.

He won contests in 22 states and got more than 12 million primary votes. His strong showing in Iowa, crushing victory in New Hampshire and stunning March victory in Michigan will all be studied by insurgent Democrats for cycles to come.

Certainly Obama will have to give a nod to how Sanders used the same techniques that the president employed to pull off his own 2008 stunner: big online fundraising and the use of rallies to fire up voters.

How much leverage does that get for Sanders, though?

Sanders’ threat is that he can go to Philadelphia as a jilted suitor and foul up the ceremony for his party. Clinton has won outright, so there’s no contest anymore. But there could be the kinds of protests that ruin the unity vibe for the Dems. Certainly his embittered-sounding remarks after getting routed in California sounded like a man thinking about squeezing some sour grapes.

He may find, though, that he has stayed too long already.

Sanders had a golden moment at the end of May to make the maximum demand of Clinton, and Obama, who is playing arbitrator in this deal. After a series of wins and still able to credibly claim that he could make California a real contest, Sanders might have been able to ask for more.

The ouster of the embattled Democratic National Committee chairwoman? Sure. The chance to pick or veto a running mate? Possibly.

As it turned out, Sanders was the one making the bigger bet on California. A win or tie there would have given him a boost heading into the month until the convention. But a thrashing like the one he took Tuesday in the most important Democratic state makes a powerful argument that his party is done feeling the Bern.

Incidentally, Sanders may have been a victim of Donald Trump. The competitive boost Trump has gotten from Republican coalescence – at least until he and his adoptive party fell out over his remarks about the ethnicity of the judge on the fraud suit against him – may have helped convince Democrats that the time had come to coalesce themselves.

Whatever the cause for Sanders’ California crap out, the result is diminished leverage. As other leaders of the left wing make ready their support for Clinton, Sanders’ own support loses some of its value.

That leaves him mostly the threat of discord. But make no mistake: that’s a credible and serious threat.

So what will he ask of Obama and Clinton in exchange for telling his supporters to respect the results and fall in line? Sanders is guaranteed a prime convention speaking slot, maybe even the keynote. He has already won leverage over writing the platform. Maybe even some changes to party rules about bound versus unbound delegates.

In short, to be shown some respect.

TIME OUT
Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel: “A team of scientists from Tennessee has helped discover a new element that might bring the Volunteer State to the 117th slot on the periodic table. The Tennessee coalition, which included researchers from Vanderbilt University, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, played a key role in the 2010 discovery and confirmation of a series of super-heavy elements. Vanderbilt professor Joseph Hamilton suggested one of those, element 117, be named Tennessine, according to a statement from the university. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry announced the ‘provisional recommendation’ to accept Hamilton’s suggestion. Its symbol will be Ts. Upon approval, Tennessee will become the second state to have an element named after it, according to Vanderbilt. Californium, element 98, was discovered in the 1950s, the university said.”

Flag on the play? - Email us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM with your tips, comments or questions

SCOREBOARD
Average of national presidential polls: Clinton vs. Trump: Clinton +2.4 points
Generic congressional vote: Democrats +2.2

HILLARY TO KNOCK TRUMP ON HIS BUSINESS WOES
WSJ: “With the Democratic primary behind her, Hillary Clinton said she now plans to put Republican Donald Trump’s business record and economic agenda at the center of her campaign, calling his ideas ‘deeply misguided’ and ‘dangerously incoherent.’ In an interview Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton said she would deliver an economic speech soon contrasting Mr. Trump’s record and policies with her own. It will be modeled after a foreign-policy speech she gave last week where she used sometimes identical language to offer a biting critique of the presumptive Republican nominee, charging he was unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.”

But Trump to offer corruption case against her on Monday - Politico: “Donald Trump’s team is hunkering down to draft the charge sheet the presumptive GOP nominee will unveil against Hillary Clinton on Monday, intent on laying out a credible general-election argument that leads voters to question her trustworthiness. Senior campaign advisers beginning to focus on the speech cast it Wednesday as ‘all about pivoting to the general election.’”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Nate Cohn says the electorate is older, whiter than exit polls suggested - NYT

Rep. David Jolly, R-Fla., considers ditching Senate bid to mount re-election effort - Politico

Dem operative tells David Drucker Dems need to learn from Trump - WashEx

Trump hires pollster for New York - NYT

Video of Trump deposition from Trump U case to be released - CBS News

AUDIBLES
“[It’s] hard to say. You know, if you look at Twitter, there’s this thing called ‘trending.’ It’s trending poorly.” – Ohio Gov. John Kasich when asked by Fox News colleague Bill Hemmer whether Kasich would support Donald Trump for president.

“I think Elizabeth Warren is a wonderful, bright, passionate person, but with no experience in foreign affairs and not in any way, shape, or form ready to be commander-in-chief.” – Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, the chairman of this year’s Democratic National Convention, in an interview with Philadelphia’s WPHT radio discussing the possibility of Warren as his party’s vice-presidential nominee.

THE JUDGE’S RULING: IN PRAISE OF PAINS IN THE NECK
As the FBI and Congress consider a measure that would allow investigators access to Americans’ web browsing history, Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano says it’s clear the government has a palpable antipathy to the Constitutional guarantee of the right to privacy: “Last week, FBI Director James Comey effectively told the Senate committee that is writing this damnable new legislation that complying with the Fourth Amendment is a pain in the neck and his agents could operate more efficiently without it. Wake up, America. The Fourth Amendment is supposed to be a pain in the neck for the government.” Read it all here.

BURN OUT
AP: “A roomful of marijuana has gone up in smoke during a fire at a house on High Street in a New York town. The Wayne County sheriff's office says firefighters were called to the house in Walworth shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday. They found smoke coming from a locked office upstairs. Once the fire was out, investigators found 40 to 50 potted marijuana plants under grow lights in the room. The sheriff's office says the fire is believed to have been sparked by an electrical malfunction. Firefighters contained the blaze to that room and the roof. None of the four residents were hurt. A man who lives there was charged with a misdemeanor count of unlawful growing of marijuana and released on a court appearance ticket.”

Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Sally Persons contributed to this report. Want Fox News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.