Bartender Behind The Romney 47% Video Gives First Interview, Says He Isn't A Democrat

The man who videotaped Mitt Romney explaining that half of Americans are lazy bums just looking for a handout is finally getting his fifteen minutes of fame. Scott Prouty, 38, was bartending that fateful night last May when Romney made the remarks at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida. In an interview with MSNBC last night, Prouty explained that he didn't have a political axe to grind, and isn't even a Democrat. (He says he's registered as Independent.) And he struggled with his decision to release the video. He tells Ed Schultz:

You shouldn't have to afford $50,000 to hear what the candidate actually thinks... I had gone back and forth and said, "I have a pretty comfortable life. I struggle like everyone else. Why am I gonna do this? Why am I gonna risk everything? Should I put myself in legal jeopardy?" I woke up in the middle of the night... and walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, and the word "Coward... You're a coward," just came out of my mouth.

Months after the fundraiser, Prouty gave the full video to Mother Jones reporter David Corn, who agreed to keep him anonymous. Prouty was concerned about losing his job and even possible legal repercussions. (This hasn't happened, but the fundraiser's host, a billionaire private equities trader named Marc Leder, had threatened to sue.) "I didn’t go there with a grudge against Romney,” Prouty, who is originally from Boston, said. “I really had no idea he would say what he said.”

After the video went viral, reporters around the world were desperate to interview Prouty, but he kept out of the spotlight because, he says, he didn't want the focus to shift to him. But now that the election is far behind us, he's finally talking about that one time he documented a politician giving a speech. It's unclear what the future holds for the man who once jumped into crocodile-infested waters to save an unconscious woman who had crashed her car into a canal. He says he expects “to be torn apart by the right-wing media" but you've got to wonder whether anyone really gives a shit at this point.