Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Monday morning that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) had misfired an attack against him at the Democratic debate the night before.

During the debate, Sanders said he couldn't imagine electing a president who believed that climate change is "a hoax invented by the Chinese." Sanders specifically cited Trump to make his point.

That was an apparent reference to a 2012 tweet by Trump, in which the real-estate mogul wrote, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive."

Trump was asked about Sanders' attack the next day during a "Fox & Friends" interview. He said his accusation against the Chinese was an obvious joke.

"I think that climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change," Trump said. "I've received many environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China — obviously I joke — but this done for the benefit of China."

He added: "Because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you can burn. They couldn't care less. Their standards are nothing. But in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it's very hard on our business."

Trump has for years used words like "hoax," "canard," "mythical," "con job," "nonexistent," and "bulls---" to reject mainstream climate science:

It snowed over 4 inches this past weekend in New York City. It is still October. So much for Global Warming. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2011

Global warming has been proven to be a canard repeatedly over and over again. http://t.co/RK1UoS8e The left needs a dose of reality. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2012

In the 1920's people were worried about global cooling--it never happened. Now it's global warming. Give me a break! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2012

Let's continue to destroy the competitiveness of our factories & manufacturing so we can fight mythical global warming. China is so happy! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2012

Global warming is based on faulty science and manipulated data which is proven by the emails that were leaked http://t.co/5BeAhats — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2012

We can't destroy the competitiveness of our factories in order to prepare for nonexistent global warming. China is thrilled with us! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2012

Looks like the U.S. will be having the coldest March since 1996-global warming anyone????????? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2013

They changed the name from “global warming” to “climate change” after the term global warming just wasn’t working (it was too cold)! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2013

Another freezing day in the Spring - what is going on with "global warming"? Good move changing the name to "climate change" - sad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2013

It's 46º (really cold) and snowing in New York on Memorial Day - tell the so-called "scientists" that we want global warming right now! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2013

The people that gave you global warming are the same people that gave you ObamaCare! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2013

Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2013

We should be focusing on beautiful, clean air & not on wasteful & very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit! China & others are hurting our air — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2013

We should be focused on clean and beautiful air-not expensive and business closing GLOBAL WARMING-a total hoax! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2013

What the hell is going on with GLOBAL WARMING. The planet is freezing, the ice is building and the G.W. scientists are stuck-a total con job — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2013

The con artists changed the name from GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE when GLOBAL WARMING was no longer working and credibility was lost! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2013