In an apparent slip, Mike Bloomberg seemed to say during the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night that he "bought" 21 Democrats their congressional seats.

"All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bough — I got them," Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg has attracted criticism from rivals for the way he has used his vast personal fortune to augment his campaign.

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In a cringeworthy slip of the tongue, Mike Bloomberg at the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina on Tuesday night almost said he "bought" 21 congressional Democrats their seats in the 2018 midterm elections.

"Let's just go on the record, they talk about 40 Democrats," Bloomberg said, referring to former Vice President Joe Biden, his rival who previously boasted of his work helping secure victories for House Democrats in the midterms.

"Twenty-one of those were people that I spent $100 million to help elect," he continued. "All of the new Democrats that came in and put Nancy Pelosi in charge and gave the Congress the ability to control this president, I bough — I got them."

His remark will do nothing to quell criticism from Democratic rivals of his use of his vast personal fortune to gain political influence.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont argued in January that Bloomberg was trying to "buy" the Democratic nomination.

The billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP who previously served as New York City mayor has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money on ads advocating his candidacy.

He has leapfrogged rivals in national polls despite entering the race only in November, after many had already been campaigning for months.

His gaffe at the debate came at a moment when several of the remaining candidates were focusing their attacks on the electability in a general election of Sanders, the Democratic frontrunner.

Critics were quick to pounce on Bloomberg's slip, among them Donald Trump Jr., President Donald Trump's eldest son, who frequently trolls his father's critics on social media.