Both Schultz and Mother Jones, which released the video in September 2012, announced the interview on Tuesday, with Schultz playing clips from the interview.
"I debated for a little while, but in the end I really felt it had to be put out," the bartender said of his decision to leak the video, secretly filmed at a May 2012 fundraiser for Romney. "I felt I owed it to the people who couldn't afford to be there themselves to hear what he really thought."
In the video, the former Massachusetts governor tells his audience that he believed 47 percent of the American public would vote for President Barack Obama "no matter what." because they were dependent upon the government.
"There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it," Romney said at the time. "That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what."
The Huffington Post released portions early Wednesday morning of an interview it conducted with the bartender in late 2012 in which he said he was scared by a lack of empathy in Romney's voice while making his remarks, and that it he was conflicted as to what to do with the footage after shooting it.
"It was literally weeks of just, you know, 'Well, hey don't lose your job, just let it sit there,'" the bartender said. "And, 'Times are tight, jobs are tough and, you know, don't rock the boat, you're happy doing what you're doing and you're about to go into the busy season of work - you can't afford to fuck this up at all. Don't fuck it up.' But then ... I would wake up and just, it was just that thing that's in your mind that you just can't get out of your mind, you know?"
He also told Schultz that he feared for his life.
"I was up against the most powerful, the richest people in the country and the stakes were pretty high," the bartender said. "You never know what could happen. There's nuts out there. You just don't know. I've certainly had threats."
Some people in Romney's fascist plutocrat constituency certainly know his identity, they will have made it their business to find out months ago.
Whether any of them are vengeful enough to kill him or otherwise make him disappear remains to be seen. The damage is done, Romney will never get another chance to run for high political office, so it's unknown. But those people who threaten or embarrass the powers that be tend to come to sticky ends - see Mary Pinchot Meyer, Gary Webb and Hunter Thompson. Many are convenient 'suicides', some are simply murdered.
There should be a people's witness protection program to protect him and others, like Bradley Manning. Governments employ those to attack the Mafia - the ruling elite can't stand any competition - and it's effective.