`Deep Throat' defends his role in Watergate scandal

A day after the release of his memoir, the man identified as Watergate's "Deep Throat" defended his role in exposing the scandal that ended Richard Nixon's presidency 32 years ago.

In his most extensive public comments to date about serving as the secret source for the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, W. Mark Felt dismissed suggestions that he fed information to the reporters because he was angry Nixon had not made him director of the FBI.

"I'm proud of what Deep Throat did. I'm proud to be related to him," Felt told CNN's Larry King in a taped interview broadcast on Tuesday night. "I've tried to go along with whatever I thought was correct and 100 percent accurate."

At age 92, Felt, the FBI's former second-in-command, appeared amiable but frail as he fielded questions about his book, A G-Man's Life: The FBI, `Deep Throat' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington, from his Santa Rosa, California home.

His family has said Felt suffers from age-related dementia, and his condition was noticeable enough that several other Watergate-era figures who appeared on the program with King felt compelled to comment on it.

"He was one tough SOB. He was somebody who really wouldn't answer a lot of questions," Woodward said in describing the FBI agent he knew more than three decades ago. "He was in control and now in this phase of his life he is not."

Benjamin Bradlee, the Post's former executive editor, said it was difficult to hear how time had dimmed Felt's memory and vitality.