years working with you. as i said, we will always be friends and i look forward to seeing you in new york. i will see you there soon. the next chapter. one more day. i ll be here tomorrow. so will i. i ll see you then. t.j., thank you very much. good afternoon, i m alina cho. fredricka is off today. it s saturday december 24th. thanks so much for joining us. two big stories today. politics and the christmas eve shopping crunch. in virginia, two candidates not making it onto the ballot. newt gingrich and rick perry. what happened? and last-minute holiday shopping. will it be the therapy that retail needs? let s start with politics and a surprising announcement from the republican party in virginia. newt gingrich and rick perry will not appear on the state s presidential primary ballot. the region? the candidates did not submit enough signatures to qualify. athena jones joins us from washington. athen ark, how did this happen? a lot of supporters of these two candid
ornament on it. if you live in rhode island, however, it is a holiday tree, taking christ out of christmas. the subject of this morning s faces of faith. but we begin with the end for herman cain. here is part of his announcement, if you missed it yesterday. i am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters, not because i m not a fighter. all right. but he won t be fighting on as a presidential candidate. the campaign is suspended. doesn t mean he s not still going to have some kind of impact. our political reporter shannon travis is here in studio with me. you ve been following herman cain for quite some time. he can continue this fight. plan a was being president, plan b is starting a website. plan b is also still being a playmaker in republican presidential race. plan b is this website, the cain solutions, where he says he ll keep promoting the 9-9-9 plan,