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Sam Armytage doubles down on anti-lockdown Sunrise comment
Sam Armytage is not budging on her anti-lockdown stance after she voiced support for a Melbourne businessman defying the city’s lockdown rules on Sunrise on Thursday.
Sam copped heavy criticism after calling Melburnian Harry Hutchinson a “wonderful Australian” and promising Sunrise would do its best to support him for risking a $10,000 fine to reopen his menswear store in the city this week.
Sam digs in on anti-lockdown stance
Now Sam has taken to Instagram to dig in on her stance, slamming the rules as ‘ridiculous’ in a series of photos shared to her stories.
The morning show host shared several screenshots of fans writing in their support.
“Getting SO many messages like this from Victorians,” she wrote over an image of a private message thanking her for her comments. “I’m hearing you.”
“Thinking of you all & I’ll keep fighting the good fight against these ridiculous rules.”
The reporter even calling news site news.com.au ‘sad’ for their coverage of the story in a scathing screenshot shared with her 243,000 followers.
“News.com.au has called me a ‘disgrace’ for sticking up for Victorians in Lockdown,” she wrote over a screenshot of the site’s original article.
“But they have a whole segment dedicated to morning shows so I think they’re the ones who are a bit sad!”
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The scathing response comes after her original comment stirred up a firestorm online.
In the interview, Harry Huitchonson explained he has decided to flaunt the rules after he says he became fed up with the Victorian government’s strict restrictions that have seen businesses closed for months.
“I don’t mean to be breaking the law, but I feel so strongly about small business surviving... they’re doing it tough, I’m not the only one,” Harry said in an interview during the breakfast program.
“We’ve got to get back to work, the economy has got to survive.”
Samantha Armytage called him a “wonderful Australian” in response, and promised Sunrise would try and support him.
“You are a wonderful Australian, you are the type of person we all need that we look to, you are hardworking you are honest, we wish you all the best,” she said.
Viewers of the program were quick to take to social media to blast the host for supporting someone ignoring the rules.
“Samantha Armytage, how dare you sit up there in Sydney and encourage this person to, in his own words, 'not care',” one person wrote on Twitter. “He is a bloody salesman not an expert in communicable diseases. All those who visited his shop should be fined also.”
“Sunrise encouraging people to break the law and risk a 3rd wave and a shop owner who thinks he knows what police are thinking police are sick of people like you who continue to place people at risk of contracting this virus,” was another outraged response.
While a third said: “This is disgraceful, as to be expected from Sam Armytage and the Seven Network.”
There were others, however, who supported the host and the business owner.
“Keep reporting these stories,” one person said. “We need to hear more than Government press releases repeated.”
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