France's Far Right Front Nationale Party Winning Big In Local Elections.
ZAIN ASHER, HOST: A furious fallout: Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S. is condemned around the world, including in the U.K. where almost 200,000 people are calling on the government to ban Trump from the country. We are live in London at this hour. Also ahead, what this means coming up. Plus, Muti Merkel is TIME's Person of the Year. We are live in Berlin to hear why her position on Europe's refugee crisis is so praised and so criticized.</s>ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is Connect the World. But first we start here in the U.S. where Donald Trump is facing a growing backlash over his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country. The Republican presidential frontrunner has been criticized by members of his own party, the Democrats, and even the White House. But the man himself remains defiant. Here he is speaking to ABC News defending his position.</s>DONALD TRUMP, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have people that I have tremendous relationships with, they're Muslim. And Barbara, they agree with me 100 percent. It is short term. Let our country get its act together. They knocked down the World Trade Center, they tried doing it twice. Other things have happened. They have a lot of -- there are people that have tremendously bad intentions. We have to be tough. We have to be smart. And we have to be vigilant.</s>ASHER: I want to take you straight now to Washington where CNN's Athena Jones is covering the story. So, Athena, we heard a lot of people come out and basically condemn Donald Trump's comments, including the White House, the White House spokesperson says that Donald Trump's comments, quote, disqualify him from the presidency. Also Paul Ryan says that his values are not truly conservative. How unusual, rather, for the administration and the House speaker to weigh in on comments made by presidential candidates?</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Zain. Well, we do often hear the White House weighing in, whether it's the president himself, or a spokesman on some level when it comes to presidential politics. You don't often hear them saying a candidate by name, and -- but they do sometimes have to weigh in. It is highly unusual, however, to hear the House speaker, a sitting house speaker, wade into presidential politics. But this is clearly a moment that's calling for a widespread response and widespread condemnation. I just want to play for you a little more of White House press secretary Josh Earnest's very strong words against Donald Trump. Let's go ahead and play that.</s>JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The Trump campaign for months now has had a dust bin of history like quality to it, from the vacuous sloganeering to outright lies to even the fake hair, the whole carnival barker routine that we have seen for some time now. The question now is about the rest of the Republican Party and whether they're dragged into the dust bin of history with him.</s>JONES: And so that's the real question here, what is the Republican Party going to do about this? And Zain I just want to add for you, we have been talking about this widespread, global condemnation of Trump's comments. I just want to show for you, I believe you have it, you can put it on the screen, just the latest newspaper cover from The New York Daily News. This one is showing Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty. It also makes a reference to that Nazi era poem about Germans who stood by, didn't stand up to Nazi policy then, and this is in comparison to the cover yesterday from the New York Daily News that compared -- from the Philadelphia Daily News, I should tell you -- that compared Trump to Hitler himself. You can see it there, the new furor showing him with that gesture that's very similar to a Hitler salute. So, there's no mistaking that there is widespread condemnation just not so much necessarily from Trump's supporters.</s>ASHER: And we have even heard British Prime Minister David Cameron speaking out about this as well. But Athena, if Donald Trump does becomes the Republican nominee, does that mean that his GOP rivals who have been condemning him, will they now come out and have to support him?</s>JONES: That's the big question here, that is the key question here. I mean, the Republican Party is facing something of a crisis right now. You have already seen Donald Trump hint all along the way, including yesterday, about how his supporters would follow him if he decided to make third party run. He said over and over again that he may abandon the Republican Party is he doesn't feel as though the party is treating him fairly. And so that is why you have even people like Speaker Ryan who condemned Trump's remarks yesterday, but also said that he would support the Republican Party nominee whoever it is, and that means that could be Trump. You have a lot of candidates who are saying, look, Trump is not going to be the nominee, so it's fine for me to go ahead and say I'll the nominee because it is not going to be him. But the big question is, what if it does come down to him. Can they have it both ways? Can they say that he is not representing the party but then also say, hey, you know, he is better than Hillary Clinton. That is the big question that Republican candidates and the party is going to have to answer -- Zain.</s>ASHER: Yeah, initially they dismissed him at the beginning. But, you know, we have seen him be consistently on top in the polls. So, the big question, will he end up being the nominee? OK, Athena Jones, live for us there in Washington, appreciate it. Thank you so much. trump's comments have been heard loud and clear around the world. CNN has been speaking to several people in various countries to find out what they think of the presidential hopeful.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is stupid. I don't think such intolerant people and partial people should become presidents. They don't deserve to become president. He is somewhat like Hitler. He was intolerant toward Jews and has become intolerant.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to understand what's the real solution, but also understand the reaction against Muslims and if you act really emotional, you may say this kind of stuff.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We Muslims are being sanctioned with such restrictions in all countries. Is being Muslim a crime? I would like to request that our leaders and the listeners not to put such sanctions on us. Islam, nowhere in its teaching, allows terrorism. Terrorists are not Muslim.</s>ASHER: And CNN's Emerging Markets editor has also been looking into Trump's business interests overseas and finds that some of Trump's previous supporters are now turning against him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is stupid. I don't think such intolerant and partial people should become presidents. They don't deserve to become presidents. He is somewhat like Hitler who was intolerant toward Jews and he is becoming intolerant toward Muslims.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to understand what's the real solution, but also understand the reaction against Muslims and if you act really emotional, you may say this kind of stuff.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We Muslims are being sanctioned with such restrictions in all countries. Is being Muslim a crime? I would like to request that our leaders and the listeners not to put such sanctions on us. Islam, nowhere in its teaching, allows terrorism. Terrorists are not Muslim.</s>ASHER: And we do apologize, that does appear to be the wrong video piece. We will work on that and get you back to the right one later on in the show. Turning now to Syria where hundreds of fighters and civilians are evacuating from the city of Homs. The Syrian government and rebel forces agreed to a temporary cease-fire to allow the evacuation. Now the rebel stronghold once dubbed the cradle of the revolution appears to set to revert back into government hands.</s>ASHER: Crowds surrounding a line of idle buses, some smiling and tearful say their good-byes. Early morning in Homs, a truce has been brokered between opposition fighters, including some with ties to ISIS and al Qaeda, others with the Syrian regime, allowing more than 800 people to leave the besieged neighborhood of al-Weir (ph). Women and children wait to board green buses away from what was called the heart of Syria's revolution. And joining them are injured residents, even some fighters loyal to ISIS and others from various rebel groups. Those who refuse to negotiate with Assad's government also join the long queue, waiting to get out. Under the terms of the truce, this symbolic city for the rebel stronghold will soon fall back to the Syrian regime, dealing a significant blow to opposition fighters. The agreement is to clear the neighborhood of gunmen and weapons carried out under auspices of the UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent. Though one man getting on a bus says he isn't leaving to put down arms.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I am from Aleppo, and we don't negotiate with the regime. We want to go out, so we could fight elsewhere and not have to negotiate with them.</s>ASHER: Another refuses to leave his home saying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): All these people that you see aren't leaving, the ones leaving are just the wounded and their families. People are remain steadfast on the fronts. The fighters aren't leaving and the big factions aren't leaving. The ones leaving are individuals, the wounded and those whose families are outside Syria or outside of Homs.</s>ASHER: Still, hundreds of others have left for Hamaa and Idlib in this pocket of cease-fire, and bags are loaded onto buses as people head out from this ancient bloodied city that was once so significant to rebels.</s>ASHER: Time for a quick break here on Connect the World. Still ahead.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could say British values is having respect for people, then yes we can all -- you can all stand up and be around this.</s>ASHER: You'll hear from Muslims across the Atlantic on what it means to be British and Muslims. But first, from Serbia, those screams were heard all the way in Berlin. We'll look at the link between the Europe's refugee crisis and TIME Magazine's Person of the Year. That's coming up.