Post Politics Now: Biden to address Naval Academy graduates; Trump to speak at NRA convention

Today, President Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutality toward Ukraine had rallied Europe in opposition as he addressed the U.S. Naval Academy’s commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Md., where Biden told the midshipmen that they are graduating at “an inflection point not only in American history but in world history.” Biden said Putin had effectively “NATO-ized all of Europe,” meaning, contrary to his intentions, Putin had strengthened the transcontinental military alliance.

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Later Friday, former president Donald Trump plans to speak at a National Rifle Association convention in Houston, just four hours’ drive from the site of the school massacre this week in Uvalde, Tex., that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The dueling appearances, in very different settings, offer a reminder of the 2020 presidential contest and a preview of a possible 2024 rematch.

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The latest: House Oversight launches investigation into gun manufacturers

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10:30 a.m.

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In the wake of two massacres that have killed 31 people in less than two weeks, the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform has launched an investigation into gun manufacturers.

The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany reports that Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) contacted five gunmakers on Thursday, requesting information regarding the manufacturing, sale and marketing of deadly weapons used in mass shootings. The gunmen responsible for the carnage in Buffalo and Uvalde, Tex., used AR-15-style rifles, purchased legally at the age of 18.

The companies being investigated, according to letters provided to The Washington Post, include Daniel Defense, the maker of the DDM4 rifle the gunman used to kill 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, and Bushmaster, the maker of the Bushmaster XM-15 semiautomatic rifle that the suspected Buffalo shooter said he illegally modified and then used to kill 10 people at a Tops Friendly Markets store.

You can read Jackie’s full story here.