CNN's Gloria Borger railed against President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE's claim that the media is rooting against him amid the coronavirus crisis in hopes it will be detrimental to his reelection prospects in November, with the network's chief political analyst calling the allegation "so ridiculous."

Borger was reacting to the president's remarks from a coronavirus task force briefing Wednesday when Trump was pressed on his comments about opening up parts of the country not heavily impacted by the pandemic in an effort to get the economy moving again.

“I think there are certain people who would like it to not open so quickly," Trump said. "I think there are certain people that would like it to do financially poorly because they think that would be very good as far as defeating me at the polls.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“And I don't know if that is so, but I do think it’s so that there are people in your profession that would like that to happen, I think it's very clear,” he told a reporter.

"Gloria, you did hear during the course of the president's statement, his response to the questions. He went after the usual suspects, including the news media," anchor Wolf Blitzer said to Borger after playing the president's remarks.

"He went after the news media, making the point that we’d like to see them do poorly in the election so we're rooting against him in this crisis, and that's so ridiculous," Borger argued. "We should almost not even dignify it, honestly."

Earlier this week, Trump introduced the possibility of getting the U.S. economy back up and running by Easter Sunday, which falls on April 12 this year.

“Every decision we make is grounded solely in the health, safety and well-being of our citizens,” Trump said Tuesday, adding he would consult with coronavirus task force health officials including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx and other advisers before making a decision.

“I think that would be a great thing for our country, and we’re all working very hard to make that a reality. We’ll be meeting with a lot of people to see if it can be done,” the president added.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fauci told CNN on Wednesday night that timelines around reopening parts of the country will ultimately be dictated by the virus.

You've got to understand that you don't make the timeline, the virus makes the timeline. So you've got to respond, in what you see happen. And if you keep seeing this acceleration, it doesn't matter what you say. One week, two weeks, three weeks — you've got to go with what the situation on the ground is," Fauci said.

The U.S. death toll stands at more than 1,000, with 280 of those deaths in New York alone, according to Johns Hopkins University data.