During Tuesday night's critical debate in South Carolina, there was a moment that many people probably missed. It involved Michael Bloomberg during an exchange about the 2018 election. He was talking about all of the new Democrats that won and Nancy Pelosi's big win...and he started to say this:

"All of the new Democrats that came in, put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave this Congress the ability to control this President...I Bou...Bou...I got them"

It sounded like he almost said "I BOUGHT them" which would have landed very differently. He could have said "I helped them", which I suspect is what he meant since he surely donated heavily to Democratic campaigns. But his brain was ready to spit out the word "BOUGHT" and that would have been ... bad.

Otherwise, he is actually having a surprisingly good debate. Except for that exchange with Elizabeth Warren regarding pregnancy discrimination, etc.

Twitter noticed:

Holy shit, did Bloomberg almost just say of the 41 new Dems in Congress “That’s why I bought them”? — jelani cobb (@jelani9) February 26, 2020

So close, so close....Bloomberg almost said he had "bought" the House Democrats he spent $100 million to elect. https://t.co/mxN2xUxWuj — David Corn (@DavidCornDC) February 26, 2020

Remember when y’all got mad when @ninaturner called Bloomberg an oligarch?



Well tonight he:



-Bought his way onto a debate stage (again)

-Admitted to buying politicians (plural)

-Purchased the audience (for applause)

-Is running campaign ads during commercial breaks #DemDebate — Stacey Walker (@swalker06) February 26, 2020