FiveThirtyEight’s top stories this week

A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular This Week] Sunday, June 7, 2020 [1. If Republicans Are Ever Going To Turn On Trump, This Might Be The Moment]( [President Trump Holds A Press Briefing At The White House]( While the past few days have felt unprecedented in almost all respects, they’ve been familiar in at least one way: President Trump has once again done something widely viewed as outrageous. In this case, his administration had law enforcement officials clear a path for Trump to visit a nearby church, leading to protesters being tear gassed outside the White House. [Read more]( [2. De-escalation Keeps Protesters And Police Safer. Departments Respond With Force Anyway.]( [US-POLITICS-POLICE-JUSTICE-RACISM]( This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. [Read more]( [3. Nine States (And D.C.) Have Elections Today. Here Are The Races To Watch.]( [EU-0602-4×3]( Today, nine states and the District of Columbia will hold primary elections, most of which were delayed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. And although the presidential nomination race is all but over, seven states (and Washington, D.C.) will hold presidential primaries today, while eight states and D.C. will hold primaries for down-ballot contests. So here’s a preview of some of the marquee races that could have implications for key Senate, House and gubernatorial contests in November. [Read more]( [4. How Accurate Have Senate Polls Been, And What Could That Mean For November?]( [STATE-NATIONAL-POLLS-SENATE-4×3]( The 2016 election was an off year for state-level polls of the presidential race. But for polls of U.S. Senate races, it was a perfectly ordinary year — better than average, even. And Senate polls in the 2018 election were even more accurate. [Read more]( [5. Trump’s Use Of Tear Gas To Break Up A Protest Undermined Three Core Values Of American Democracy]( [TRUMP-TEAR-GAS-4×3-1]( The criticism that President Trump has disregarded many of our country’s norms and democratic values is not new. We’ve written about it several times before — in particular, about how the violation of values is a bigger deal than the breaking of norms. But law enforcement officials using tear gas on protesters outside the White House to clear a path for Trump to visit a church nearby — for what seemed to amount to a photo-op of him holding a Bible — was arguably one of most significant moments of his breaking with such values during his presidency. [Read more]( [6. Biden Doesn’t Really Have A Young Voters Problem]( [Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Campaigns Ahead Of Primary In South Carolina]( Some Democrats are worried about former Vice President Joe Biden’s ability to appeal to younger voters. After all, the presumptive Democratic nominee struggled immensely to win young voters in the primary: From the Iowa caucuses through the March 17 primaries, Biden won just 22 percent of the vote among those younger than 45 years old, according to the exit polls, compared to 51 percent among those 45 and older. [Read more]( [7. How The Police See Issues Of Race And Policing]( [Protests Erupt Around The Country After Police Custody Death Of George Floyd In Minneapolis]( One important difference between the protests that have spread across the country for the past nine days and nights and other protest movements is their subject. The demonstrators who have taken to the streets in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers are protesting against police violence and the inequities of the criminal justice system, which as others have pointed out, call into question the role and neutrality of the law enforcement personnel who patrol those streets. The police officers firing tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets — and generally roughing up protesters — have seemed in many ways like counterprotesters more than peacekeepers. [Read more]( [8. Police Are Killing Fewer People In Big Cities, But More In Suburban And Rural AmericaÂ]( [POLICE_KILLINGS_4x3]( Six years after nationwide protests against police violence captured the country’s attention, the recent killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have put the issue of police violence back into national focus. Many are left asking what, if anything, has really changed? [Read more]( [9. How Lots Of White Democrats Ended Up At The Protests]( [US-POLICE-RACE-UNREST]( Americans around the country are protesting the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed last week in Minneapolis by a white police officer, as well as other recent instances where black civilians died at the hands of police officers. But while the protests are largely about the deaths of black people, the protests themselves are not all-black events — there have been plenty of white people at the demonstrations. These white protesters are representative of a broader phenomenon, and an important way in which the country has changed since the Black Lives Matter movement first emerged in 2013. [Read more]( [10. Trump Has Returned To His 2016 Law-And-Order Rhetoric, But It Might Not Sit So Well In 2020]( [President Trump Holds Press Conference In White House Rose Garden]( When President Trump delivered his inaugural address in 2017, it was in an unfamiliar style. Gone was the jokey off-handedness of Trump-on-the-trail. In a stilted, elegiac tone the freshly-minted president spoke of “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones” and “young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge.” The content of the speech was familiar, though: Trump would bring America back from the brink. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” President George W. Bush called it “some weird shit.” [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: The Data Behind Police Violence]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 47 West 66th Street, New York, NY 10023.