The president, in consultation with some aides, decided not to give a speech Sunday about the violent protests over what many see as systemic racial injustice by law enforcement.

In this edition: Why the fire’s different this time, what the Libertarian Party has to say about the riots and the virus, and a new poll that shows why the president is an underdog.

In increasingly urgent terms, demonstrators called for an end to violence against black Americans.

Facing in the virus an enemy he could not tweet into submission, the president was desperate to change the subject, from pressing bogus conspiracy theories to inflaming tensions over the death of George Floyd.