State of massachusetts rejected their application over religious beliefs and now they are suing the commonwealth over it. Im john roberts, welcome to wednesday. Gillian nice to be here on a beautiful blue sky day. John what a picture. Gillian im Gillian Turner in for sandra smith. Kitty and mike burke say they were turned down because of adherence to catholic teachings, a letter says they would not be affirming to a child who identified as lgbtqia plus. Comes as they struggle to accommodate 1500 children in the foster care system. Chief religion correspondent lauren green has been looking into all of this and joins us from new york. The issue is, can a secular government prevent someone from participating fully in a community because of their religious beliefs. Now, the Supreme Court has actually ruled in favor of religion in a similar case about two years ago. But the burkes say this has been devastating for them, saying massachusetts would rather children sleep in the hallways of hospitals than let them welcome children in their home. In a complaint, they said they went through 30 hours of training and lengthy interviews and assessments of their home. According to burkes lawyer, one interviewer actually praised how they really seemed to understand adoption and foster care. According to the lawsuit, the couple was grilled on situations regarding a childs Gender Identity, and one section said when this writer challenged kitty and said gender affirming care for children does not require Gender Reassignment and is generally a reversible hormone blocker, she pushed back stating it is chemical castration. But mike said they love a child no matter what. One of the things of the catholic, we love as god has loved us. Hate the sin, not the sinner and i would love that child just like my mother loved me whenever i did something wrong. Massachusetts held Human Services and the department of families would only state that they do not comment on pending litigation. John. Lauren green in new york, thank you. Bill mcgurn is also taking up this case in his column in the Wall Street Journal where he questions if the push to cancel some views is leading to more intolerance. Headline is no catholics need adopt. He joins us to talk about all of this coming up in the next hour. Gillian. I believe my optimistic, positive message is rooted in iowa. Im concerned about my retirement and how the economy will be in the future. I come from agricultural state that iowa identifies with. I want to be able to help people, give fairs and whatnot and i need to pay my bills and its all harder and harder and harder. I think biden has done a good job but i think hes old. I also think trump is old, and grassley is old, i think age limits need to be addressed. Gillian candidates are trying to stand out among the crowd at the Iowa State Fair as fox News Releases the latest power rankings. Former President Donald Trump maintains a strong lead in both national and the state polls. Voters favored alternative as Florida Governor ron desantis despite some major recent campaign setbacks. We have fox team coverage, but begin with Alexis Mcadams on the ground in des moines. Alexis, senator scott is gaining more support as the days go on. Hey, gillian, thats right. We saw it here on the ground firsthand in iowa as he was working the crowds and connecting with voters. People were stopping him every two steps and trying to shake his hand and talk with him about his vision for america. So this afternoon senator scott in the top three in the power rankings. He says its because of his common sense conservative views and he believes america is ready for a new face. Listen. You think voters are ready to move on from donald trump . Im running for president , i believe they are. I think people are excited about an optimistic positive message and conservativism as long as you have a backbone. You dont have to be angry to win people over to the conservative proposition. But still this afternoon donald trump remains the clear frontrunner, followed by ron desantis in second place, and in most national polls, tim scott is a distant third but the only candidate to pull double digit support in more than one state, according to our fox poll. We know that Campaign Fundraising is key to winning this race. Trump wins supreme, polling in 54 million in just the first half of the year. And ron desantis has had a lot of money, coming from large individual donors, spent a lot of that money, too. Its a different story for tim scott, who has had more than 53,000 unique donors, people, gillian, giving like 200 bucks each. Hes spending that money on tv ads in iowa and new hampshire, and also here Vivek Ramaswamy, and mike pence as those in the conversation. Asa hutchinson, listed as an outsider, tells me hes going to qualify for the debate. Listen. What do you want people to know about you that could change your mind to vote for Asa Hutchinson . My record as governor, whenever you balance the budget, you lower taxes. You work hard to create the private sector. That record to me is important in understanding how to lead america. Iowa voters, gillian and john, are listening to the candidates messages in des moines. Everyone except Trump Reminds the voters its early in the race but not for long. We are going to hit thanksgiving, christmas and before you know it, the caucus time in iowa. Back to you. Gillian alexis in des moines, great to see you what looks to be a genuinely good time. John fly over to the white house right now, fema administrator is back on the mainland and shes talking about the devastating situation in maui, specifically lahaina, and what the federal government is doing to respond to it. Lets listen. In addition to them, 30 specialists from the Hhs Mortuary Teams are already in maui and will soon be joined by the mortuary specialists from the department of defense. These experts are going to be able to help identify loved ones. Now i want to be honest with everyone. This is also going to be a very long and hard recovery. But our federal, state and local partners are working around the clock to help all of those who have been impacted by this disaster. From the beginning of this event my regional administrator has been on the ground and has been leaning forward to support those in need. As he always does, President Biden directed me to move quickly and pushes many resources into the area so we could help people as soon as possible that were impacted. Since the news first broke about the fire, i have been in constant communication with President Biden to provide him realtime updates of the situation both while i was on the ground and to inform him and his team of the support that we are providing to the community. And i want everybody to know this. The president , fema and the entire federal family will be there to support the people of hawaii as long as we are needed. Now just a couple of operational updates for everyone. Today femas Associate Administrator for response and recovery and region 9 regional administrator are both on the ground. To date we have mobilized millions of liters of water and food, deployed more than 700 personnel to the disaster with more than 600 already on the island. We have given out 2. 3 million insistance to families. And we have approved over 1300 registrations for assistance. We launched our Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program and this will complement the states Fire Relief Housing Program for residents and we also authorized critical needs assistance to make sure that we are putting money in the hands of survivors. We also launched a joint task force to assist the state and ensuring the Housing Assistance that survivors are eligible for, whether its through femas programs or the state programs, that it will be seamless to the survivor and dont have to figure out who they are supposed to call for help. I also need all of your help. I need you to help us get the word out and encourage more people to apply for assistance. Please help us spread the word to residents of maui and encourage them to register for assistance with fema through either the staff on the ground, through our website at disasterassistance. Gov, or 8006213362. We also opened our first 18006213362. Or 800621fema. We also opened our first Disaster Recovery center. What these facilities are, Brick And Mortar locations that have federal, state and nonprofit partners that will all be colocated where people can registered for assistance and get additional support. And this is an important first step in their recovery process. We are also cognizant of the fact the fires have completely up ended peoples lives, and especially true for Young Children of hawaii unable to return to school in the area, similar to a young boy i talked about. As both a mother and grandmother myself, my heart breaks thinking of the tragedy they have gone through and the road ahead. Childrens Disaster Services has deployed two teams in partnership with the American Red Cross to provide care and reassuring presence in our shelters and im certain it will bring ease to the parents coping with the tragedy of the situation and devastating loss and want to provide stability to their families. In addition the red cross, in coordination with maui county, supports staff in five shelters where food, water, hygiene kits and other resources are provided to individuals. We are also coordinating these services so that anybody who leaves a shelter for a hotel or other place to stay will be eligible to receive the same level of services being offered at these shelters. Our partners at hud are also supporting the people of hawaii by providing a 90day moratorium on foreclosures of federal Housing Administration insured mortgages and home equity conversion mortgages. This also another very important step in their recovery process. And lastly, Debris Remostly is a critical aspect of this recovery. We have mission assigned epa and the Army Corps Of Engineers to start the process of Debris Collection and planning for removal. Also mindful and i stress to my team every day and every time i talk to them that we need to continue to ensure that we have a strong respect and awareness of the native hawaiian cultures and history during our response and recovery processes. I want the people of hawaii to hear it from me. Fema and the federal family are here to be with you and we will be with you every step of the way. So to close, to the people of hawaii i promise you this. We will do everything we can to continue to help you rebuild on the island and the island that you call home. Together with our state, federal and volunteer partners we will continue to provide support to hawaii for as long as necessary. But the people of hawaii, they deserve a recovery not only addresses their immediate needs but positions them as an example of resilience, strength and resolve. Thank you, and with that ill take any questions. John all right, there is the fema administrator with the latest update on the situation there as you see the devastation in lahaina in the western part of maui. And gillian, it is this recovery is going to be measured in years, if not decades because of the amount of devastation there, and for the families who lost loved one, its over 100 now, they will never recover. Gillian for some families no recovery, the others, the island government is estimating nearly 6 billion to rebuild the portion of the island thats been pretty much eviserated. And she met with a young boy and told her he had not a single possession left to his name, not an item of clothing, not a backpack, that experience is replicated in the thousands. John and complaints from the locals the government is not doing enough to help them but the process initially that is painstaking because they have to sift through all the rubble of the burned outbuildings to see if there were people trapped inside and if they do find remains they have to identify remains. This is going to be a long time before things even begin to recover, let alone semblance of normal. Back to politics, marc thiessen, former white house Speech Writer and fox news contributor. Thanks for hanging with us through the fema administrator, marc. I want to back to our power rankings, they clearly show that donald trump is the candidate to beat for the gop nomination. But maybe is not invulnerable. The degree of support the power rankings, the maga base is strong, 37 . Take a look at this. 37 of republicans who say you know, i might be persuaded to vote for somebody else, and then 25 of people say that they are completely nontrump. So, if you take the 27 and 35 and put it together, that is more than the maga base, its actually majority. Could another candidate potentially grab that persuadeable block and, you know, run the board against trump . Its entirely possible. I mean, what that poll shows is that more than six in ten republicans are open to or going to support somebody other than donald trump. Which means that trumps lead is wide, but its thin, and state by state in iowa, polling at 44 which means 56 of republicans want somebody else. In new hampshire, 42 , means 58 want somebody else. South carolina, 43 , 57 want somebody else. The question becomes can one candidate consolidate that support between the nontrump voters and persuadeable voters and break out and the first time youll have a chance to see somebody do that is the Fox News Debate next week. Thats really there are two primaries. Primaries to take on trump and then theres the primary the primary who is going to take on trump and the primary against trump. And somebody has to emerge from that pack or else trump wins. John if the president is not there to defend his policies it may give whoever is there a leg up. In order to take the front ronter you have to have the war chest to do it and nobody seems to be over trump. Fundraising, donald trump is way out ahead of ron desantis. And then Vivek Ramaswamy is right behind ron desantis as well. Look at the discrepancy. 30 million discrepancy. How do you make that up between now and january . The other difference between trump and other candidates, he has a lot more legal bills than he they do and hes spending a lot of that money on lawyers. But look, i think if somebody is going to win this they have to be actually targeting the voters who are available and thats something, one of the reasons why ron desantis has not taken off is that hes trying to outmaga trump and those hard maga voters, the 37 of not seperable. And you dont do it by hard maga. You make the case that donald trump cannot win the election. A. P. Poll, 64 of americans say they will not vote for trump next november. 53 of those are absolutely decided whatever, only 11 are probably. So, you got to make the case, you are the candidate who can really go out and defeat joe biden because we cant afford four more years of biden and probably president harris. You mentioned a moment ago a lot of people will vote for donald trump no matter what. The criminal cases against him might make a difference, New York Times siena poll. When asked whether trump has committed serious crimes, 17 of republicans yes, 71 said no. But in terms of other lanes, tim scott was at the Iowa State Fair yesterday doing a fairside chat with the governor, he believes if he keeps working on the grassroots voters in the state of iowa he might be able to enhance his fortunes and listen to this exchange that Vivek Ramaswamy had with a pansexual activist at the Iowa State Fair. I believe we live in a country where free adults should be free to dress how they want, behave how they want, thats fine. You dont become oppressive by hoisting that on others, and that includes kids. Kids are not the same as adults. And i respect you have a different opinion and you and i can be civil and have this conversation. John he was constricted by a lgbtq activist and it could have gone south but a very reasoned discussion with this person and you wonder if he can do that next wednesday in the debate, could he potentially have a breakout moment . Any one of them could. I think theres a hunger in this country for a return to civility, and a return to optimism and hopeful vision for america. And what you will see on the debate stage, Say Donald Trump does not show up, embarrassment of riches in the republican party. So much talent set to be on that debate stage, so many smart politicians people who have delivered for their states, accomplished things, who have a positive, hopeful vision that can attract not just the conservative base but win over persuadeable voters and swing voters and build a governing majority and Republican Voters will look at the stage and see The Embarrassment Of Riches and you have to ask themselves, why would i not choose from that . Why would i not choose from somebody who cannot only win me and win people who agree with me, but persuade people who might not agree with me on everything and win them over and say we can build a hopeful, positive, governing majority. John i think its going to be eye opening and informative session next wednesday, no question about that. Marc, great to get your take on things. Appreciate it. Thank you, john. John and what i said, one week from today the Top Republican candidates will face off in miami. Right here on fox news, moderated by bret baier and martha maccallum. Watch for tha