Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt stressed on Sunday that President Trump said while he was running for the Oval Office that climate change is occurring.

"The president said actually back during the campaign that climate change occurs," Pruitt told host Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."

Pruitt added that Trump has "indicated that climate changes."

ADVERTISEMENT

The EPA head in discussing Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord refused to say on Friday whether the president believed climate change is real.

“All the discussions we had through the last several weeks had been focused on one singular issue: Is Paris good or not for this country?” Pruitt said during a press briefing.

Trump has also claimed, however, that climate change is a "hoax" perpetuated by China as an attempt to make the country more competitive against the U.S.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012

Pruitt on Sunday defended Trump's decision to leave the Paris accord after weighing what the impact on jobs and the environment will be.

"We have nothing to be apologetic about as a country with respect to what we've done in reducing our CO2 footprint," he continued, adding that the U.S. still plans to remain engaged.