CNN anchor Brianna Keilar lost patience with a Trump official when interviewing him about the shortage of ventilators, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Keilar had a heated exchange with Peter Navarro, the Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, on Thursday afternoon.

The host asked Mr Navarro: “It looks like the capacity for the US is going to be around 200,000 ventilators and what experts are saying is that there could be a million needed. So are you going to be able to meet that demand?”

Mr Navrarro responded by highlighting the Obama administration’s response to the Swine Flu crisis of 2009, before Ms Keilar interrupted by asking: “Peter, why are you wasting your time on this and not solving the problem you have? Peter, why are you even talking about this?”

He responded by saying that “you made the claim that this administration is ill prepared,” and after Ms Keilar said “I did not,” Mr Navarro angrily responded “run the tape, I just heard that.”

Loading....

After a few more seconds of debate Ms Keilar said: “I’m asking you if you’re going to be able to get to a million ventilators,” but Mr Navarro instead focused on her interviewing style, saying that “I’m trying to respond to you, but you keep interrupting me.”

The CNN anchor then repeated her question: “Are you going to get to a million ventilators,” before Mr Navarro asked again why she wouldn’t let him respond.

“Will you answer the question? Will you get to a million ventilators?” Ms Keilar asked one final time, but Mr Navarro denied that was ever her question.

“That wasn’t the question. You started by saying this administration was ill prepared,” he said.

In recent weeks, the shortage of ventilators has become a heated topic with prominent Republicans and Democrats calling on Donald Trump to do more.

Republican senator Ted Cruz called on Mr Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act, a federal law that gives the president authority to force industry to give the government priority on orders and the authority to expand production of critical supplies or goods.​

New York governor Andrew Cuomo also criticised Mr Trump for the number of ventilators sent to his area, angrily stating: “You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators!”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 69,684 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 1,100.