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When asked what gives her hope, Becky Gerritson choked up. Her voice faltering and breaking with emotion, she answered, “The American people” before her emotions got the better of her.

Gerritson is the president and founder of the Wetumpka Tea Party in Alabama. In an exclusive — and at times, emotional — interview with The Daily Caller, she spoke about the fear and mistrust in her life since the IRS targeted her and other Americans on the basis of their political beliefs.

Gerritson and her testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee put a human face on the IRS scandal and made her an overnight sensation.

“I’m a born free American woman, wife, mother and citizen. And I’m telling my government that you’ve forgotten your place,” Gerritson testified.

In an interview with TheDC’s special correspondant Ginni Thomas, Gerritson said that it appears that the government wants its citizens to fear it.

“It’s almost as if the government has given the citizens the reason to be fearful of them, and it’s just scary to think the government is so emboldened to come down on their citizens like they have with this IRS scandal,” she said. “I don’t know if this is true, but this is what it feels like. It’s that the government wants us to fear them. They are not our friend. They want us to fear them, and they want us to come under their submission.”

Catch the rest of Becky Gerritson’s exclusive interview this week on The Daily Caller.

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