The man who dealt a significant blow to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign by filming — and subsequently releasing — damaging comments from a fundraiser was revealed as Scott Prouty tonight during an appearance on "The Ed Show" on MSNBC.

He told host Ed Schultz that he was leaning toward not releasing the "47 percent" videos. He finally decided to do so, he said, after he couldn't sleep one night. Prouty, who described himself as a registered Independent, said he looked at himself in the mirror and called himself a "coward."

"I said, I'm going to do it," Prouty said.

Interestingly, Prouty said he thought the news emerging from the video would be Romney's comments describing his tour of a Chinese factory as president of Bain Capital. In that clip, Romney described the factory as being crowded with workers who were placed behind barbed wire and paid a slight fraction of American wages.

Ultimately, though, what made news was Romney's decrying of the "47 percent," whom he said were "dependent on government" and "believed they were victims."

"I don't think he has any clue what a regular American goes through on a daily basis. That guy has no idea," Prouty said of Romney.

When asked by Schultz if he thought he had influenced the election, Prouty said he thought he had.

“Yes, I think it did,” Prouty said. “It defined him [Romney] at a point when he needed to be defined for the American public. It defined him in a real negative light, but in an honest light.”

Prouty said he decided to reveal himself now because of Romney's reemergence on the national scene. Recently, Romney gave an extensive interview to Fox News' Chris Wallace, and he also has a speaking slot at this week's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.

"I think the guy needs to respect the will of the voters," Prouty said of Romney. "...He needs to take personal responsibility" for his words.

At Mother Jones, David Corn — who broke the original story of the "47 percent" tapes — has more on the development of the story. At Corn's request, James Carter IV (the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter) tracked down Prouty, and the discussions took off from there.

Earlier today, the Huffington Post provided a look at Prouty's past and his inspirations.

According to the HuffPo, the man — a bartender for the catering company working at Romney's fundraiser — decided to release the video of Romney's comments because he felt it was a "civic duty."

"I couldn't sleep after I watched it," he said. "I felt like I had a duty to expose it."

And in another bizarre anecdote, Prouty also once saved a drowning woman whose car had plunged into alligator-infested waters in Florida.

Here's video of Prouty's appearance, courtesy of MSNBC:

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