I knew I had a previous engagement lying around here somewhere.

At first, Vice President Joe Biden didn’t know about his schedule, according to President Barack Obama’s Press Secretary Josh Earnest:

The vice president’s schedule for [the week in question] has not yet been set.

Then the priority turned up.

A White House official confirmed to Fox News on Friday that the vice president will miss the address, as he will be traveling abroad.

Going to an undisclosed location…. Joe Biden is President of the Senate, so he normally—and under protocol imperatives—attends joint sessions of Congress. But something finally came up.