Story highlights

Iowa congressman said Wednesday the natural family is a man and woman joined together

Donald Trump unveiled Tuesday his plan to make child care more affordable

CNN  — 

Iowa Rep. Steve King vigorously defended his views on marriage Wednesday, telling CNN’s Chris Cuomo that promoting “natural” families is the best thing for presidential candidates to do.

“I want to respect all people but I want to promote the natural family, Chris, and I think that’s the most wholesome thing that we can do,” he said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“The natural family is a man and woman joined together hopefully in holy matrimony blessed by God with children,” the Donald Trump supporter added.

The Iowa Republican said he supports any child care plan of Trump’s that encourages more Americans to become parents. The Republican presidential candidate unveiled Tuesday parts of his plan to make child care more affordable.

“The proposal about supporting mothers and fathers and families and encouraging more babies in this country, that is good,” King said. “Anything he might do with this, I would encourage him to promote the expansion of families because if we don’t have more babies than we have funerals, we’re going to end up like Europe. And we’ll be in a situation where we’re importing a counter culture that may be alien to the values of the American way of life.”

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Cuomo cited scientific research that says children of same sex parents do as well if not better than the children of heterosexual families.

“We know that what works is loving the kid, giving them the attention, giving them the time,” Cuomo said. “There is no reason to believe that you have to have a man and woman to do that.”

“Why not encourage anything that gets a child loved and provided for?” he asked the Congressman.

King argued that there is also evidence that supports that children ideally need a male and a female parent.

“The evidence is very heavy on the other side of this thing – to have a role model as a man in the home, to have a role model as a woman in home especially a model of a father and a mother that are joined together and working together in a team,” he said. “That is the best way that we can hope that all children are raised.”

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