EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt three times on Friday avoided giving a clear answer to whether President Trump thinks climate change is a real phenomenon. He continued that evasion on Sunday, arguing that what the president believes is not the real issue of import.

"I think the whole question is an effort to get it off the point, and the issue of whether [the Paris Agreement] is good for this country or not," Pruitt said in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "The president has indicated the climate changes."

Though Stephanopoulos pushed for a more specific statement, arguing that this question is foundational to Trump's Thursday announcement that he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate pact, Pruitt reiterated that the president's choice was rather based on "the merits and demerits of the Paris Agreement" as well as putting "jobs and the environment first."

Trump has a long record of public climate change skepticism, most notably arguing it is a "hoax" invented by China. Watch an excerpt of Pruitt's interview below. Bonnie Kristian