Meet the man who shot Romney's '47 percent' gaffe video!
Washington, Mar. 14 : Scott Prouty, a bartender who was working Mitt Romney's private meeting with major contributors at a Florida fundraiser, has said he was the one who shot the damaging video of the Republican presidential contender.
Scott Prouty revealed himself on MSNBC's "The Ed Show" and dismissed President Barack Obama's supporters during a closed-press fundraiser last year.
According to the Washington Post, Prouty said that he was behind the whole thing.
The bartender said he brought a camera to the Boca Raton, Florida fundraiser in case Romney came back to take pictures with the staff, as former president Bill Clinton had done at another event, adding that it worked, the report said.
He said that he did not go there with a grudge against Romney, adding that he really had no idea he would say what he said.
According to the report, Prouty grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood in Boston. He said he felt that people who could not afford to attend a high-priced fundraiser should get a chance 'to find out what the candidate actually thinks'.
He said he struggled for two weeks with whether or not to release the video and risk his own career. He did not have health insurance.
After wrestling with the decision, he decided it would be cowardly not to release the video and went down the path and never looked back.
Romney's comments on the "47 percent" Americans who he described as dependent on government handouts were a major blow to his campaign, as the former Massachusetts governor himself acknowledged in a recent interview.
Prouty said he did not reveal himself before the election because he did not want to draw attention away from the video itself.
He added that he wanted Romney's words, and Romney's words only" to be the focus. Now, he said, he expects "to be torn apart by the right-wing media."
Prouty said he is a registered independent but tends to vote Democratic. He had no contact with the Obama campaign.