Echoing producer, Imus declared: “We thought” man who confessed to killing Ramsey “was Ned Lamont,” added: "[W]e're supporting Lieberman, if you did not know that"

On MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Don Imus echoed his executive producer Bernard McGuirk's claim that John Mark Karr, the man who reportedly confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey, “looks like Ned Lamont.”


During an interview with MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews on the August 18 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus echoed his executive producer Bernard McGuirk's claim from the previous day that John Mark Karr, the man who reportedly confessed to killing 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, “looks like Ned Lamont,” the Democratic Senate candidate in Connecticut. After Matthews asserted that Karr reminded him of the late actor Anthony Perkins in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho (Paramount Pictures/Universal Studios), Imus declared: "[W]e thought it was Ned Lamont." Matthews countered, “No, I think it was Alan Schlesinger,” the Republican Senate candidate in Connecticut. Moments later, Imus reiterated, “We thought it was Ned Lamont,” and he reminded Matthews that "[w]e're supporting [independent candidate and incumbent Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman, if you did not know that."

From the August 18 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:

IMUS: So, when I walked in the house last night, you were reporting on the JonBenet Ramsey deal.

MATTHEWS: Well, yeah, that's not my stuff. But I did it, you know.

IMUS: I'm thinking, were there -- I had this image of there being people with AK-47's and ski masks --

MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, I felt that, too. I felt that my viewers -- the people that watch my show -- love politics, and they love to know what's going on in the world and Iraq and the politicians and what's going on with [Sen.] George Allen [R-VA] and what's going on up in Connecticut. But I figured I ought to touch base with that story. And I do have to admit that, like everybody on the planet, I think I thought that the dad did it, you know. And I still don't know about this case, but the father has always been kind of spooky and weird, and he never -- he never -- he wouldn't answer any questions. He would never appear separately from his wife in any interrogations or any interviews. And why did he always insist on being there sitting with his wife? What was that all about when they asked him questions?

Of course, [President] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney pulled the same number, but I wonder -- I refer to that format as the Menendez brothers. But I always thought the fact that he hired a flack, a big-time flack at the same time he hired a big-time lawyer and then wouldn't answer any questions raised some suspicion on my part. And I think a lot of people fell for that. I still don't -- this -- the new guy, I said last night, he reminds me of Tony Perkins in Psycho. I mean, I don't know. I don't know what happened.

IMUS: It reminds -- we thought it was Ned Lamont, the guy running against Lieberman.

MATTHEWS: No, I think it was Alan Schlesinger. You see, the Republican guy we had on from Connecticut? The guy with the gambling situation?

IMUS: No. No, I missed that.

[...]

MATTHEWS: But he's a strange -- I'm looking at him now -- strangest-looking guy.

IMUS: We thought it was Ned Lamont.

MATTHEWS: Well, yeah, you made that point.

IMUS: I'm trying to make it again, Chris. You want to help us here? Chris, we're supporting Lieberman, if you did not know that.

MATTHEWS: I have noticed that trend here. Are you going to give him the same push at the end you gave Kerry?

IMUS: Well, you know, I can't -- why is that funny? I mean, I can't help if Kerry --

MATTHEWS: It's like one of these conceits in a movie. It's like when you say you're backing somebody, it's sort of a formal position you take, and then you start railing against the guy, and I'm not sure you're helping.