NOEL KING, HOST:
First up today, there is domestic fallout from President Trump's meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
He had a joint press conference after their meeting yesterday. President Trump refused to side with the U.S. intelligence community's unanimous assessment that there was Russian interference, an attack on American democracy, during the 2016 election. And the reaction here has been swift, negative and bipartisan. Arizona's Republican Senator John McCain called it, quote, "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory," end quote. Former House speaker and Trump loyalist Newt Gingrich tweeted, (reading) it is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected immediately.
KING: And Democrats were not exactly holding back either. NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson is with us now.
Good morning, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning.
KING: All right. So we have outrage, and it is bipartisan outrage. The president is set to meet with lawmakers today in the wake of all this. What do you think is going to be on their minds?
LIASSON: I think what's going to be on their minds is what's on a lot of people's minds - why? Why, when the president is so eager and willing to attack or undermine our allies - NATO, the EU, the G-7, Angela Merkel, Theresa May - why does he refuse to ever offer a scintilla of criticism to Vladimir Putin? I can't imagine what the scene in that meeting is going to be unless they decide to pull their punches, which is possible. But Donald Trump never backs down. He never apologizes. So that meeting could be confrontational, or they could just move on to talking about the Supreme Court nominee.
KING: (Laughter) To be a fly on the wall.
LIASSON: Yeah.
KING: Mara, I want to play a piece of tape from President Trump's Helsinki news conference. He was asked directly by a reporter - who do you believe about Russian election interference? - meaning do you believe U.S. intelligence officials, or do you believe President Putin's denials? And here's what the president said.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: All I can do is ask the question. My people came to me. Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it's Russia. I have - President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be.
KING: I don't see any reason why it would be. I mean, given what we know from months of investigation and indictments, including statements by the president's own director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, who was mentioned there. How can the president continue to make this claim?
LIASSON: I can't explain that. People say - oh, he's still sensitive about his victory, anything that tends to discredit it. But I think we're beyond that. And he just said - my people came to me, Dan Coats, and said they said they think it's Russia. Those indictments did much more than that. They said that the president's own Justice Department is prepared to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in public, in a courtroom, that the president of Russia has been lying to Donald Trump.
KING: What consequences does a statement like that for the president do for our intelligence agencies and how they do their jobs?
LIASSON: I think it has a lot of consequences. People have been talking about whether Dan Coats can continue to work in the administration now that he's been thrown under the bus.
KING: Yeah.
LIASSON: There are consequences for other players. Vladimir Putin, does he feel he has a green light? NATO, this is just what they feared - terrible meeting with NATO, then on to be chummy with Vladimir Putin. Do they go forward thinking that the U.S. is no longer an ally that can be trusted? There are a lot of consequences. Does Congress move to protect the Mueller investigation now, something that...
KING: Yeah.
LIASSON: ...They've been unwilling to do?
KING: NPR's Mara Liasson with a lot of questions and some answers. Thanks so much, Mara.
LIASSON: Thank you.
KING: All right, we're going to take a look now at how this Trump-Putin summit played in Russia.
GREENE: Yeah, the country's official government news agency is reporting that Russia's top diplomat called the outcome of the Helsinki summit, quote, "better than super." That is the official take. But like any politician, Vladimir Putin also has to take his own public into consideration.
KING: NPR's Moscow correspondent Lucian Kim is with us. Hi, Lucian.
LUCIAN KIM, BYLINE: Good morning.
KING: All right, so one thing, Lucian, that has made President Putin so popular in Russia is this idea that he is making Russia a force on the world stage again. Is that what you're hearing this morning after this summit?
KIM: Oh, well, you know, it was the main news of course on the primary state TV channel because they'd said the whole world was following this summit. They called the results substantive and productive. Putin was really shown as, you know, a statesman solving world problems with the leader of the most powerful country in the world. He was on evening talk shows last night getting a first take. Some of the speakers actually called the summit a breakthrough. And one of them said, you know, critics back in the U.S. should take either a tranquillizer or cyanide because all that happened was two leaders met and held normal talks.
KING: A tranquilizer or cyanide - OK (laughter).
Let me ask you something. These allegations of Russian meddling, interference, in the U.S. campaign in 2016 - does the Russian media actually report on those allegations?
KIM: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I mean, all of these negative news stories involving Russia, whether it's the poisoning of the former Russian double agent in England or doping during the Olympics or election interference, these things are really covered on state media - because they feed the narrative that Russia is besieged by enemies who are trying to defame Russia. So in that sense, Donald Trump looks very sympathetic to a Russian audience because he's siding with Putin. And I think for most of the casual consumers of TV news in Russia, which is mostly run by the government, that really resonates.
KING: Because President Trump did not take a firm stand yesterday against this Russian interference in U.S. politics, do you think that's likely to make Vladimir Putin try it again, try more of it?
KIM: Well, Putin is in a very delicate situation. The level of detail in those indictments on Friday showed him what the U.S. intelligence is capable of. So even if he wants to deny it or equivocates, these are not vague accusations. And he know that Trump's own intelligence chief, Dan Coats, holds Russia responsible for interference. So for right now, it might be a good idea for Russia just to keep its head down.
KING: (Laughter) Keep its head down.
Let me ask you one more question about Putin. Russia's had a couple of weeks of very good PR. It hosted this World Cup; it went great. But you've reported that Putin has had some domestic political problems. What's up there?
KIM: That's right. Well, polls show that Russians want Putin to focus more on domestic issues, despite all the international prestige he's clawed back. The government wants to raise the retirement age, which is highly unpopular. So it's possible that once all this euphoria wears off, you know, people will notice that nothing has really concretely improved in their lives.
KING: NPR's Lucian Kim. Thanks so much, Lucian.
KIM: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KING: All right. In Nicaragua, student protesters are regrouping this week. The government there tried to steamroll a large protest camp over the weekend.
GREENE: Yeah, these protests have been going on since mid-April. Students have been protesting these changes to a public pension plan that touches much of the population in Nicaragua. The government's main response has been violence. And almost 300 people have died in clashes so far. That's according to human rights groups. The protesters now want President Daniel Ortega removed from office. And the attacks over just this past weekend killed at least a dozen people across the country and also pinned some protesters inside a church for 15 hours.
KING: NPR's Mexico and Central America correspondent Carrie Kahn has been following all of this. Carrie, good morning.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Good morning.
KING: So as David mentioned, this weekend, these protests escalated into this dramatic 15-hour siege inside of a church. Witnesses were describing in real time hearing gunfire and mortars in the air all night. I mean, how did we get to this point?
KAHN: Sure. The church is located at the far end of the National Autonomous University in Managua, and that's where students have been holed up for the last about two months. They've set up barricades, and they've been fighting with pro-government forces and police. And they have a rudimentary field hospital. Like you said, on Friday night, government forces pinned down about 200 students on the campus. And they took cover in that church in this gun battle, a very vicious one that killed two students, continued through the night. High-level bishops in the Catholic Church desperately tried to negotiate with government officials to let the students out. And finally, in the early morning, they were bussed out to waiting relatives and cheering supporters.
And then on Sunday, there was more violence in some communities outside the capital, especially in the city of Masaya where residents have set up barricades. And they've been fighting off paramilitary groups there. The government launched what they called Operation Clean-Up. And that was to remove these barricades, which they say are hurting local businesses and life in the area. And human rights groups say at least 10 people died in those skirmishes.
KING: I want to ask you about the man behind this crackdown, Daniel Ortega. He's led the country for a decade - or he did lead the country for a decade when the Sandinista rebels took power in '79. He's been president again since 2007. What is Ortega saying about these protests? Is he worried?
KAHN: Well, in public, he doesn't say a lot - in government, official news sites. He and his wife, who is the vice president and chief spokesperson for the country, they've called these students terrorists and criminals. And they point to the number of police that have died during the crisis and damages to buildings. They say they found weapons on campus and that is all proof that the protesters are illegitimate and need to be stopped.
You know, I've reached out several times to the government for a comment on their increased violence and rising death toll. And I'll tell you, Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, has written back. And oddly, all she does is keep thanking me for my interest. The response feels very cynical. But he and his wife have really consolidated power in the courts, the congress, media, everything in the country. And the protests, which started back in April, were just this opposition to Social Security tax increases. And they've really morphed into a widespread call against their increasing authoritarianism and for their ouster in early elections in March.
KING: NPR's Carrie Kahn. Thank you so much, Carrie.
KAHN: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF AK'S "PS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.