Whether media outlets want to acknowledge it or not, it seems clear that government officials endorsing nationwide mass gatherings caused a whole lot of people to decide they were done with distancing. Anecdotal, but I’ve heard a bunch of people say they were over it after that.

This is a different question than whether the protests themselves triggered a spread directly. They must have, to some significant extent, as the mayors of LA and Miami-Dade have said.

But the consequences aren’t limited to direct spread. There are indirect repercussions too

The glaring contradiction between months of public cautions and public officials joining crowds of tens of thousands in the streets convinced a lot of people that (a) that public health officials were overblowing it, or (b) it wasn’t much of a threat anymore. Not hard to see why.

Gathering in crowded indoor bars is irresponsible. But you can’t say that a crowd at a beer garden is any different than a crowd at a protest, regardless of the cause animating it. How many people took public transit there? People see these inconsistencies and adjust accordingly.