The Democratic National Committee was blasted online on Friday after changing the rules for 2020 debates in a manner that could allow billionaire Michael Bloomberg to essentially buy his way onto the stage.

“The Democratic National Committee is drastically revising its criteria to participate in primary debates after New Hampshire, doubling the polling threshold and eliminating the individual donor requirement, which could pave the way for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg to make the stage beginning in mid-February,” Politico reported Friday.

“The new criteria eliminate the individual-donor threshold, which was used for the first eight debates, including next week’s debate in New Hampshire. Bloomberg, the self-funding billionaire, has refused to take donations from other individuals, which has thus far precluded his participation in any of the debates since he joined the race late last year,” Politico explained.

The decision was harshly criticized by current and former candidates.

Let’s make one thing clear: @TheDemocrats decision to change the rules now to accommodate Mike Bloomberg and not changing them in the past to ensure a more diverse debate stage is just plain wrong.https://t.co/BoCVpahWpx

— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) January 31, 2020

https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1223356793805398018

Democrats should not be connecting the ability to be heard to money. Period.

DNC did that in setting debate requirements & in removing them. You link money & politics, process gets corrupted. Dems should be rejecting money’s influence, not letting it guide our primary.

— Steve Bullock (@GovernorBullock) January 31, 2020

Here’s what others were saying:

Mike Gravel qualified for the Democratic debate with a grassroots surge that gave him 67,000 donors. The DNC shut him out.

Mike Bloomberg spent $180 million on a massive ad campaign, donated $250,000 to the DNC, and has exactly 1 donor. The DNC let him debate.

Fuck the DNC.

— The Gravel Institute (@GravelInstitute) January 31, 2020

https://twitter.com/traceyecorder/status/1223345667545812992

Fewer things better encapsulate just how beholden to big money the @DNC is than rewriting the rules to let billionaire Michael Bloomberg buy his way onto the debate stage.

The Democratic establishment does not care about you and will sell you out in a heartbeat.

— jordan (@JordanUhl) January 31, 2020

https://twitter.com/darrenmwong/status/1223368163280269318

1. ⁦DNC members didn’t vote on this, or any of the debate rules.

2. Every candidate and every donor who gave to that candidate who played by the rules (to date) should voice outrage at Tom Perez.

3. Perez will never be Governor of MD by doing this https://t.co/p0HEXmoukR

— Nomiki Konst (@NomikiKonst) January 31, 2020

If you look at the new DNC debate thresholds as anything other than "Get Andrew Yang off stage and put Mike Bloomberg on," Then you are high.

— Brad Bauman (@bradbaumn) January 31, 2020

DNC changes debate rules so Bloomberg can buy his way in, that's how scared they are of #Bernie2020. Also: Bloomberg's bump has has zero to do with popular support – the same thing would happen to a russet potato with $150-million of TV ads behinds it. https://t.co/9MMHtnFFbf

— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) January 31, 2020

Make no mistake about it: the @DNC changing its debates rules to open the door for @MikeBloomberg is Dem elite waving white flag on @JoeBiden. They see the writing on the wall and are now moving beyond hedging their bets to propping up Bloomberg https://t.co/OdzXn6KTUj

— Jordan (@JordanChariton) January 31, 2020

Nothing to see here… just Bloomberg buying the DNC… everyone move along.https://t.co/JKRqSE9s4H

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 31, 2020

No wonder ⁦@TomPerez⁩ was thinking abt his exit pay package: this is “$ buys access” Nice job—elbow out ppl of color/ppl w ideas but give a certain billionaire a ticket in. #dnc https://t.co/h7URt7U7Nk

— Jonathan Tasini (@jonathantasini) January 31, 2020

I thought the rules were set?!?! That is what they told us when we demanded a climate debate. https://t.co/l5FV6Z60te

— Brianna Westbrook (@BWestbrookAZ8) January 31, 2020

Bloomberg should NOT be on the debate stage. It's the DNC, not the DLC. The debate stage should only feature characters that people actually want. Elections should not be pay to win.

— Ace Watkins (@GamerPres2020) January 31, 2020

So now that Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner, the DNC is changing its debate rules mid-primary, eliminating the small donor threshold to let Bloomberg buy his way onto the stage.

Bloomberg’s surrogates are openly admitting he’s running as a Sanders spoiler.

Here we go again. https://t.co/WqGTuQijKo

— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) January 31, 2020

DNC: climate debate? Nah
Bloomberg debate? Yah https://t.co/R7H7xmSq3t

— Jamal Raad (@jamalraad) January 31, 2020

this is an extremely bad call by the dnc imo, esp when this kind of bar kept cory booker and julian castro out of debates https://t.co/59lB7Kibxc

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) January 31, 2020

Congratulations to the DNC & its chair, Tom Perez, for altering the rules to let the world's 8th-richest person who spent $200 million of his own money on the election in 5 weeks & just happens to be big DNC donor onto the debate stage. https://t.co/7lk6Bk1l5W

— Alex Kotch (@alexkotch) January 31, 2020