'This Week' Transcript: Sen. Pat Toomey, Colin Powell

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2011— -- AMANPOUR: This week -- what now? The supercommittee comes up empty.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There will be no easy off-ramps on this one. We need to keep the pressure up to compromise.

AMANPOUR: Democrats and Republicans retrench as budget cuts loom. Our headliner, Republican supercommittee member Sen. Pat Toomey on what it will take to break the logjam.

Also today -- the immigration wedge. Newt Gingrich calls for a humane policy, and Mitt Romney pounces.

NEWT GINGRICH, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't see how the party that says it is the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy that destroys families.

MITT ROMNEY, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Amnesty is a magnet.

AMANPOUR: Our powerhouse roundtable on the last crucial month on the trail before voters finally get their say.

Then, the BBC takes us to Syria, where we get an exclusive look inside the armed uprising.

And our exclusive Thanksgiving interviews this weekend. Colin Powell's call to serve. How Americans can give back.

POWELL: The issue here is not the 1 percent that are in the military. It's the 99 percent who are not. And how do we make sure that they find it a call to serve.

AMANPOUR: And Matt Damon's gift of hope to the world's poorest.

DAMON: You see what happens when people suddenly have clean water. You see how life changes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Good morning and welcome to the program. We have a big show for you this holiday weekend. But first, some news since your morning papers. Newt Gingrich snagged a major prize of this campaign season today, a front-page endorsement from the Manchester Union Leader. The influential newspaper's decision is a stinging rebuke to Mitt Romney, who's campaigned relentlessly in the Granite State and who leads in the polls there. The editors acknowledge Gingrich is not a perfect candidate, but that's OK with them. "A lot of candidates say they're going to improve Washington. Newt Gingrich has actually done that, and in this race, he offers the best shot of doing it again. We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear."

Pakistan today buried at least 25 soldiers killed in a NATO air strike yesterday. The attack is a serious setback to the already tenuous relationship between Pakistan and the United States. In response, Pakistan has ordered the U.S. to vacate its air base in the south of the country, where it launches CIA drone attacks. And here in the United States, a glimmer of hope in a gloomy economy. Black Friday sales were through the roof, up 7 percent from 2010. Retailers pulled in $11.4 billion, a $1 billion jump from last year.

The political world is just starting to shake off its turkey hangover, and today's Union Leader endorsement marks the opening shot of the campaign home stretch. It is a big boost for Newt Gingrich on the heels of a debate that had him on the ropes. As always, our man Jon Karl measures the fallout from this week in politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC CORRESPONDENT: This week in politics featured Newt's gambit. Testing his new standing atop the polls, Newt Gingrich went squarely against his party's position on immigration, saying he would let some of the 11 million or so illegal immigrants now in the U.S. to stay here.