BY KATIE GLUECK Washington will be riveted this week by the drama surrounding former FBI Director James Comey\u2019s expected congressional testimony.<\/p>\n But Republicans elsewhere in the country say they couldn\u2019t care less.<\/p>\n Interviews with GOP activists across the country, including around a dozen attendees at this weekend\u2019s North Carolina Republican convention, reveal deep mistrust of Comey, who was investigating possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign before the president fired him.<\/p>\n Comey, slated to appear before the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday, is also expected<\/a> to respond to reports<\/a> that Trump pressured him to give former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn a pass. Yet there is little Comey could say this week that would change how grassroots Republicans view the president.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing about Jim Comey that I trust,\u201d said state Sen. Ron Rabin. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing consistent about what he says.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether Comey has any credibility, he offered a view shared by many Republican activists gathered at this airy waterfront convention center: \u201cNone. Zero.\u201d<\/p>\n Former FBI Director James Comey announced the FBI investigation into Russia and the 2016 election on March 20. Just seven weeks later, he was fired. Here’s a timeline of the many twists and turns that have happened since.<\/p>\n Nationally, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, operatives and donors have expressed alarm about the complicated, multifaceted issue of Russian involvement in an American election, some of which Comey is expected to speak to this week. Some, like Rep. Mike Simpson, a Republican of Idaho, have vouched<\/a> for his credibility, especially given reports<\/a> that he has contemporaneous notes from conversations with Trump.<\/p>\n But at this convention, which offered a snapshot of the Republican grassroots, many considered the broader Russia issue as, at best, a distraction from issues like health care and the economy. And others saw the swirling questions around Russia\u2014including the Comey investigation and coming testimony\u2014as pure partisanship driven by Democrats and the media to undermine the legitimacy of Donald Trump\u2019s victory last November.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole thing with Russia is nonsense,\u201d says Jim Gannon, a GOP activist in North Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re desperately trying to justify why Hillary Clinton lost other than saying Democratic policies aren\u2019t acceptable to people,\u201d said Gannon. \u201cThis whole thing is a pretty desperate attempt at partisan politics. \u2018Wow, the Russians swung the election.\u2019 What did they do, come and vote? No.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. intelligence experts, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, have been adamant<\/a> that Moscow did in fact interfere<\/a> with the 2016 campaign, and intelligence officials have said Russia pushed for hacking<\/a> of Democratic officials\u2019 emails. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied this, saying in a recent interview<\/a> with NBC\u2019s Megyn Kelly that such an order could have come from anyone, including from Americans.<\/p>\n Allison Powers, an attendee who said she is the secretary of the Charlotte-area Union County GOP, was inclined to believe him.<\/p>\n \u201cPutin suggested Russia\u2019s being made a scapegoat for hacking,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I think too.\u201d<\/p>\n Long-time U.S. government officials\u2014the \u201cdeep state,\u201d she calls them\u2014\u201cdon\u2019t want Trump. They\u2019re trying to mess him up.\u201d<\/p>\n Others didn\u2019t go that far, but a number of people questioned whether Russia had really sought to interfere with the U.S. election.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to do everything we can to become allies with Russia,\u201d said T.J. Johnson, the vice president of the North Carolina Federation of Republican Men. \u201cAs for election meddling, I don\u2019t think they really had anything to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n And some argued that even if Russia did meddle, America has engaged in similar political interference in other countries. It was an echo of Trump\u2019s broader defense<\/a> of Putin earlier this year, after former Fox News host Bill O\u2019Reilly called the Russian leader a \u201ckiller.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of killers,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cYou think our country\u2019s so innocent?\u201d<\/p>\n The remark made many hawkish Republicans\u2014who have spent careers preaching the virtues of American exceptionalism\u2014cringe at what they saw as moral equivalence.<\/p>\n But attendees here in Wilmington also stressed that they don\u2019t see the Russia issue as particularly relevant, and said they would rather focus on domestic issues Republicans promised to move on (though lawmakers have often been thrown off course by each new Russia revelation, which has distracted from their congressional agenda).<\/p>\n
\n<\/span>WILMINGTON, N.C.
\nMcClatchyDC.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/a>FILE – In this May 3, 2017 file photo, then-FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Comey, fired last month amid a federal investigation into connections between Russia and the Trump campaign, is expected to testify before Congress this week. Carolyn Kaster AP<\/p><\/div>\n
\nConservatives torch Comey\u2019s credibility ahead of Senate hearing<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n