Yang told Fox News on Monday that “I’m a little bit biased because I’m making the fall debates so I think the rules are fine…I think the DNC has been very fair and open and transparent.”

And jabbing some of his rivals in a record-setting field of roughly 20 White House hopefuls, the first-time politician said “the rules have been out there for us all to see for months and if you were going to complain about the criteria, you would probably want to complain about it a little bit earlier in the process to make it seem like it’s not purely self-interested.”

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Veteran Democratic consultant and communications strategist Lynda Tran doesn’t fault the lower-tier contenders for complaining about the thresholds.

“I don’t think it’s sour grapes to fight hard for a chance to be on the debate stage,” Tran noted. “Whether you’re leading the polls, rounding out the middle tier, or circling the drain, the debates are every candidate’s best and most effective shot at making their case to millions of people about why they are the right choice to be commander-in-chief.”

But Tran – who ran communications for the Barack Obama-tied Organizing for America and served as a senior official in his administration – said that “every single candidate is subject to the same rules and has the same opportunity to meet the qualifications. It’s a delicate balance for the DNC to be as inclusive as possible without crippling the eventual nominee.”

She stressed that “at some point, the field must narrow. The sooner that happens, the sooner the remaining candidates and then the eventual nominee can focus on building the foundational infrastructure required to actually win the White House.”