Former President Donald Trump continues to lead as the GOP frontrunner after being indicted on federal charges in early June, however, nearly half of GOP voters surveyed are skeptical over whether he should continue to lead the Republican Party, according to a new poll.

A new NBC poll shows a majority of Republican voters would vote for Trump in the Republican primary, with 51% listing him as their number one choice. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis came in second with 22% of the votes and former Vice President Mike Pence coming in third with 7%. 

These new numbers come in comparison to how the candidates fared with GOP voters back in April shortly after Trump was indicted in New York in connection to hush-money payments made in 2016. 46% of Republican voters supported Trump then and 31% said they were backing DeSantis. 

After pleading not guilty to 37 federal charges related to his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in June, a combined total of 77% of GOP primary voters stated the federal charges gave them either minor concerns (14%) or no real concerns (63%). 64% of Republican voters also said the various indictments and investigations Trump faces are politically motivated. 

These numbers are then compared to 55% of all registered voters who say the charges give them either major concerns (47%) or moderate concerns (8%).

Trump remains the GOP frontrunner, even when poised in a hypothetical match against DeSantis, with 60% of Republican voters backing the former President and DeSantis receiving only 36%. 

However, in a hypothetical Trump-Biden battle, President Joe Biden came out on top with a near majority of the vote (49%). Trump received 45% support. However, a total of 68% of those surveyed stated Biden’s mental and physical health was a major/moderate concern for them. 

On the flip side, when asked if they agree with Trump remaining the party’s leader, nearly half of GOP voters said yes, with 21% saying they believed he was a good president but it was time to consider other leaders. 

Trump appeared at a Miami federal courthouse in early June in connection to the classified documents case, marking the first time a former president has faced federal criminal charges. The charges include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

The former president slammed the federal indictment as ‘sham’ and ‘election interference’ by the Biden administration in a speech at his property Trump National Golf Club Bedminster after appearing in federal court, calling it ‘the most heinous abuse of power in the history of our country.’

Trump also slammed Special Counsel Jack Smith at the time, calling him a ‘deranged lunatic’ as well as blasting President Biden for having ‘his top political opponent arrested and charged.’

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said the truce brokered between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Wagner Group is ‘evidence’ of Putin’s ‘weakness.’

Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin agreed to a deal this weekend to go into exile in Belarus after he staged an apparent insurrection in which he directed an armed convoy toward Moscow. The Russian mercenary organization had been fighting for the Kremlin in the country’s ongoing war in Ukraine, but he marched toward Moscow over the weekend to demand the removal of Russian commanders, who Prigozhin says have mishandled the war.

CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan questioned Sullivan on ‘Face the Nation’ Sunday about how Belarus appears to be a power broker in the deal, considering the country is considered ‘a vassal state of Russia.’

‘Like why would Yevgeny Prigozhin move to Belarus? Why are they suddenly appearing to be power brokers?’ Brennan asked. 

‘[Belarus President Aleksandr] Lukashenko is in power now as president because of Vladimir Putin,’ Sullivan said. ‘Vladimir Putin came to his rescue in August 2020. It was Lukashenko who was dependent on Putin. But now think about this. This is, as you know, Belarus is part of a union state with Russia, they are conjoined.’

‘How dependent now is Putin on Lukashenko … it’s evidence of the weakness that this reveals what’s happened in the last three or four days, the weakness of Vladimir Putin. It’s not just an appearance of weakness, it’s actual weakness,’ Sullivan said.

‘A person that he has said is a traitor who has stabbed him and his nation in the back … he struck a deal with?’ Sullivan continued. ‘A deal that he needed to strike to avoid bloodshed and chaos. What strong leader does that?’

Prigozhin founded the mercenary group in 2014 and had been considered a close confidant of Putin in recent years. Sullivan called the Wagner Group a ‘corrupt organization’ during his CBS News appearance and cited Prigozhin’s time in prison for robbery, fraud and related charges.

‘Prigozhin himself spent most of the 1980s in prison because he’s a career criminal,’ Sullivan said.

‘Wagner operates in states in Africa and elsewhere, not because there are patriots who were executing policy on behalf of the Russian government, they’re there to get access to … gold mines, oil resources and so forth,’ he added.

‘This is a money-making organization, corrupt organization that the United States correctly treats as a transnational criminal organization.’

All in, the Wagner rebellion lasted less than 36 hours, and Prigozhin is reportedly headed to Belarus to live in exile.

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The White House received backlash Saturday after it was reported that Hunter Biden was accompanying his father to Camp David amid bombshell whistleblower allegations of political corruption – along with recently pleading guilty to federal tax charges and agreeing to plea deal on a felony gun charge.

The House Ways and Means Committee revealed Thursday its interview with an IRS whistleblower last month who shared a WhatsApp message from 2017 in which Hunter Biden allegedly told a Chinese business associate that he and his father would ensure ‘you will regret not following my direction.’

‘I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,’ Hunter Biden told Henry Zhao, the director of Chinese asset management firm Harvest Fund Management, in the message provided by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. ‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.’

Conservatives noted on Twitter the close timing of the revelations and the father and son’s travel together to Camp David.

‘This week, federal government whistleblowers allege massive DOJ/FBI corrupt obstruction to protect Hunter and Biden family,’ tweeted Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. ‘And Biden regime sweetheart plea deal with Hunter is announced. Joe Biden’s response? Bring Hunter to WH for a State Dinner and then off to Camp David for the weekend with him.’

‘COLLUSION: Hunter and Joe Biden retreated to Camp David with their lawyers for the weekend,’ tweeted @amuse, a prominent Substack writer. ‘Will Biden throw his son overboard to save his presidency?’

‘Lots of business to discuss?’ GOP communicator Steve Guest tweeted.

‘Amazing. Taking a tax cheat and gun felon with him on a trip where he will be discussing high level international events,’ Washington Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross tweeted. ‘But also, does Hunter live with Joe now or something?’

‘Strange to go to Camp David for such a short time,’ New York Post columnist Miranda Devine tweeted. ‘Maybe to have confidential discussions with unknown legal advisers in a heavily guarded place away from prying eyes.’

President Biden has consistently said that he never talks to his son about foreign business deals, despite piling evidence that he has met more than a dozen of Hunter Biden’s business associates.

The whistleblower testimony was revealed two days after Hunter Biden entered an agreement with his father’s Justice Department to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay federal income taxes on at least $3 million he earned through foreign business deals. He also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement with regard to a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

‘True to form, Biden leaves the White House for his weekend at Camp David, despite unrest in Russia,’ journalist Charlie Spiering tweeted. ‘Hunter Biden also spotted boarding with him on Marine One.’

In addition to accompanying his father to Camp David, he was also listed as a guest at the White House state dinner Thursday night for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his wife. Footage showed Hunter Biden rubbing elbows with prominent guests.

When White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was pressed Friday about Hunter being a guest, she said, ‘I’m just not going to get into family discussion, personal family discussion.’

‘As you know, Hunter’s his son,’ she added. ‘I’m just not going to get into that.’

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday linked new revelations about Hunter Biden’s business dealings to what he described as President Biden’s inaction over China’s efforts to build a spy base in Cuba.

Trump spoke at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority gala in Washington D.C. and reacted to recent claims by an IRS whistleblower that the agency obtained a WhatsApp message in 2017 from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management, in which Hunter alleged he was with his father and named him to put pressure on Zhao to fulfill a commitment.

‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight’ Biden wrote. 

‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.’

‘I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,’ Biden allegedly said.

It was also revealed that an account linked to Hunter Biden received more than $5 million just days later.

Trump took a swipe at Biden’s son Saturday after recalling the text messages: ‘I didn’t know he was that tough!’

He then tied the revelations to what he said was a lack of action by Biden over reports that the Chinese regime is moving to build a spy base in Cuba.

‘Within ten days, the Bidens got $5.1 million from China for absolutely no reason. They got $5.1 million. In fact, they’ve taken tens of millions of dollars from China. And that’s probably why, maybe he’s not complaining about the fact that they’re building military bases in Cuba. Maybe that’s the reason,’ he claimed.

Trump later went on to describe Biden as a ‘compromised president’ and suggested that Biden’s policies were being influenced by past business dealings.

‘This is truly 100 times bigger than Watergate. This is a much bigger story than Watergate. That’s why Biden doesn’t mind that China has opened up these military installations,’ he said. ‘He’s basically said, it’s okay. He’s not doing anything, even saying anything. He’s not talking about it.’

The Biden administration has downplayed the report that China and Cuba have reached a secret agreement for an eavesdropping facility to allow the Chinese to scoop up electronic communications, saying it is an ongoing issue that predates the administration.

‘This is an ongoing issue, and not a new development, and the arrangement as characterized in the reporting does not comport with our understanding,’ an administration official said.

The official said that the administration had been briefed on a ‘number of sensitive PRC efforts around the world to expand its overseas logistics, basing, and collection infrastructure globally to allow the PLA to project and sustain military power at greater distance’ in January 2021.

China is said to have considered a number of sites spanning the Atlantic Ocean, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific. 

‘This effort included the presence of PRC intelligence collection facilities in Cuba,’ the official said. ‘In fact, the PRC conducted an upgrade of its intelligence collection facilities in Cuba in 2019. This is well-documented in the intelligence record.’

Separately, Hunter Biden’s attorney attacked the IRS whistleblower revelations in a statement.

‘Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,’ Clark said. ‘The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.’ 

His lawyer also said that ‘[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.’

Biden this week got into hot water with China when he referred to President Xi Jinping as a ‘dictator’ when arguing that the leader was upset when a Chinese surveillance balloon was shot down over the U.S. earlier this year. 

‘The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it was he didn’t know it was there,’ the president said. ‘That’s a great embarrassment for dictators when they didn’t know what happened.’

Trump, in his speech on Saturday, said he would ‘drop the hammer’ on China if they refused to scrap the proposed base.

‘There will be tariffs unlike anything that China’s ever seen before,’ he said.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday says he was proud to be ‘the most pro-life president’ in U.S. history as religious conservatives marked the first anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade.

Trump was speaking before the Faith & Freedom Coalition Gala in Washington D.C., and noted that he was speaking on the one year anniversary of the Dobbs v Jackson ruling. 

In that ruling, the conservative majority overturned Roe v Wade — which in 1973 ruled that a right to have an abortion was protected by the Constitution. Since the Dobbs ruling a number of laws limiting abortions have been passed at state level.

Trump has been criticized by some pro-life advocates after he called Florida’s law limiting abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy ‘too harsh.’ 

On Saturday, he addressed those who view him as insufficiently pro-life through a story of a woman who defended him to other conservatives by saying ‘his guy ended Roe v Wade.’

Even though the ruling came in 2022 after he left the White House, Trump has been attributed with impacting the decision by his appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his time in office. 

Trump welcomed the comparison.

‘And I sort of said that myself, actually. But I’m proud to be the most pro-life president in American history,’ he said.

‘From my first day in office, I took historic action to protect the unborn, very historic. Nobody else did anything near what we did,’ he said.

Trump cited moves including reinstating the Mexico City policy — which barred federal funding going to organizations abroad that perform abortions.

He also took aim at pro-abortion activists, accusing them of wanting ‘unlimited abortion on demand and even executing babies after birth.’

‘They are the radical people when they’re willing to kill a child after birth, they’re willing to take it beyond the nine months. They are the radical people. They are the people that are really in trouble with the Lord,’ he said.

He also emphasized the pro-life message that it often put forward by Christians that all life is sacred — even the lives of those who have not yet been born. 

‘Every child, born or unborn, is a sacred gift from God,’ he said.

Former Vice President and 2024 Presidential candidate Mike Pence spoke on Saturday to commemorate the first anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, reinforcing his committing to protect the unborn and proclaim that to be truly pro-life in America ‘you must be pro-adoption.’

‘As we celebrate this great new anniversary, let us here resolve that we will work, and we will pray as never before to advance the cause of life and the laws of the land in every state in America. That we will support women in crisis pregnancies with resources and support for their care, for the unborn, and for the newborn as never before,’ Pence said, speaking on Saturday, June 24 at the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

‘That we will advance the cause of adoption in America, for to be pro-life you must be pro-adoption,’ he continued. ‘And we will work every day to elect leaders at every level who will stand without apology for the sanctity of human life.’

‘That we will advance the cause of adoption in America, for to be pro-life you must be pro-adoption.’

— Mike Pence

Pence also commended pro-life activists for their work ‘to bring about a historic day one year ago today,’ noting that it took ’50 years of innocent life loss, and broken hearts’ to bring about the Dobbs v Jackson ruling.

‘It is amazing to think that we are here in this historic place, after 50 years of innocent life loss, and broken hearts. After 50 years of prayer and advocacy and a march on a dark anniversary every January,’ Pence said. ‘One year ago today, because of your work, and because of your prayers, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed Roe v. Wade and gave them a new beginning for life.’

‘I came today to say thank you,’ Pence said. ‘Those looking on around the country, those that have labored in years past-for all you’ve done, to bring about a historic day one year ago today. We commend all the leaders for life, gathered here.’

The 2024 presidential hopeful also affirmed his commitment against abortion.

‘We stand for babies, for their unalienable right to life,’ Pence said. ‘We stand for the right of every mother and father to experience the inexpressible joy of looking into the eyes of their own. We stand for families who long to open their hearts to adoption. 

‘We stand for babies, for their unalienable right to life.’

— Mike Pence

‘Men and women of the pro-life movement, let us never relent in the cause of life,’ Pence continued.

‘We will elect leaders it every level who will stand without apology for the sanctity of human life. The cause of life is the calling of our time,’ Pence said. ‘We can never bring back those 62 million lives whose voices were never heard in this world.’

Pence’s fellow Republican presidential candidates Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) have all supported a nationwide abortion ban after 20 weeks, with some exceptions, including the life of the mother, rape, and incest. 

Previously, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a six-week, heartbeat bill, abortion ban in his state.

The Department of Defense is refusing to say whether it notified families of the passengers on the Titan submersible after detecting a possible implosion noise immediately after the vessel lost contact with its mother ship.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the U.S. Coast Guard, which led the Pentagon’s unified command for the incident, said it had contacted families when it became aware of the situation and notified them once debris was found days later. However, officials said Thursday, after the debris was found, the U.S. Navy had detected an implosion noise almost immediately after the Titan lost contact on June 18.

‘The Unified Command contacted the families as soon as we were aware of the incident, and we have maintained contact throughout our response,’ Coast Guard spokesperson Anne McGoldrick told Fox News Digital. 

‘As has been our focus through this search, and is policy within the Search and Rescue community, officials will always notify Next of Kin and make every effort to involve the family before information is released to the public,’ McGoldrick said. ‘The families were immediately notified as soon as the debris was identified.’

It remains unclear whether U.S. officials leading the incident response ever notified families on June 18, or in the four subsequent days, that an implosion likely occurred. The Coast Guard, Navy and Department of Defense didn’t respond to follow-up questions from Fox News Digital.

On June 18, the five passengers of the Titan, a submersible managed by exploration company OceanGate, boarded the vessel to dive for a viewing of the Titanic about 900 miles east of Massachusetts. The passengers were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; British businessman Hamish Harding; Pakistani father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood; and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French Navy officer and Titanic expert.

Approximately an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, the Titan lost contact with the mother ship it had launched from. In the days following, the Coast Guard spearheaded a comprehensive search-and-rescue effort involving private sector and Canadian entities, and regularly updated the public on the estimated amount of oxygen left on board the Titan.

On Wednesday, the Coast Guard said it had heard ‘underwater noises’ in the search area, which some believed to indicate the Titan was stuck below the surface with its passengers trapped.

But on Thursday, the Coast Guard announced that it had discovered a ‘debris field’ in the area where the submersible was believed to have been lost. Officials then told reporters during a press conference that the debris was ‘consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,’ suggesting that the Titan had imploded instantaneously when it had lost contact days earlier.

‘Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families,’ Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said. ‘On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.’

Shortly after Mauger’s comments, though, a Navy official confirmed to Fox News Digital that a top secret acoustic detection system heard sounds consistent with an implosion near the site of the Titanic around the time the Titan lost contact on June 18.

‘While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission,’ a Navy official told Fox News Digital. 

Fox News Digital reporters Bradford Betz, Lucas Tomlinson, Michael Ruiz, Anders Hagstrom and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Senate and House Democrats took to social media Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking aim at the ‘six far-right justices’ who delivered the abortion ruling.

The remarks from elected Democrats came amid the gathering of thousands of pro-life advocates in the nation’s capital to celebrate the high court’s ruling last summer, which ended recognition of a constitutional right to abortion and gave individual states the power to allow, limit or ban the practice altogether.

‘In the year since extreme right-wing Supreme Court justices overturned Roe, millions of Americans lost their fundamental right to decide what happens to their own bodies. But in that year, millions more stood up to defend those rights,’ Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., wrote in a tweet. ‘They organized, voted, and supported one another. And it is those Americans who give me hope.’

‘Together, we will keep fighting until we restore our reproductive freedom,’ Gillibrand added.

‘A year ago today, six far-right justices on the Supreme Court threw out decades of legal precedent — dismantling the legal freedoms enshrined in Roe v. Wade,’ Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., remarked in a tweet, which included a statement on the matter.

In his statement, Menendez claimed that the ‘majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decided to abdicate their oath to uphold the rule of law in favor of fanning the flames of extremist efforts to end women’s bodily autonomy and unravel the progress we have made as a society.’

Menendez asserted that the court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has ‘opened the flood gates to dangerous assaults on reproductive health care and other long-protected freedoms.’

Sharing her thoughts about the issue, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., insisted in a video message that the ruling from the ‘activist Supreme Court’ was ‘devastating for the health, safety and future of millions of women across America.’

‘Having the freedom to control your health care, your body and your future, free from government interference, is a fundamental right,’ she said.

Echoing his colleagues, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., wrote in a tweet that the ‘six extremist Supreme Court justices toppled years of precedent to gut access to abortion.’

‘The decision to have an abortion is a difficult one – and one a woman alone should make. Not pundits, not lawmakers,’ Merkley said. ‘In Oregon, the right to abortion is protected by state law. But our fight continues to codify the right to the full range of reproductive health care for EVERYONE in our country.’

Reflecting rhetoric used by President Biden, Merkely added: ‘Make no mistake: MAGA Republicans and the extremist pundits who are cheering them on are pushing for a national abortion ban – a dangerous proposal that will put patients at risk. I will continue to fight to protect reproductive freedom.’

Also taking aim at the court’s decision, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that Americans must ‘fight’ to preventing members of the court from ‘imposing a backwards, extreme agenda.’

‘One year ago, a far-right Supreme Court majority overturned the decades-old precedent set by Roe, eliminating the right of women to make their own reproductive decisions,’ Whitehouse wrote in a tweet. ‘We have to fight against the Court imposing a backwards, extreme agenda on our country.’

Similar to that of Baldwin, House Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., shared a video message vowing not to ‘back down’ on the issue of abortion.

‘One year ago today, the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court handed down a radical decision to take away abortion rights from millions of Americans,’ she wrote in a tweet. ‘But we won’t back down. We’ll fight back and ensure this constitutional right is guaranteed.’

‘We now live in an America where generations of people grew up assuming certain things were here to stay now face a future where they have fewer rights than their parents and grandparents,’ Jayapal said in the video. ‘An America where extreme right-wing legislatures are so out of step with their own constituents that they want to take away fundamental freedoms that a majority of the American people support.’

Discussing the ‘choice’ to terminate her own pregnancy at one point in time, Jayapal said the decision to have an abortion should be made only ‘between the individual, their doctor, and the loved ones they choose to consult.’

Two dozen states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming – have all implemented laws since the Dobbs ruling, restricting abortions except to save the life of the mother. Most of these states also have exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Several of these state bans are being held up in litigation.

Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this article.

The sons of late British businessman and adventurer Hamish Harding remembered their father as a ‘loving’ man with a ‘larger-than-life presence.’ 

Harding, the billionaire founder of Action Aviation, a UAE-based international aircraft brokerage company, was one of five crewmen who perished aboard OceanGate Expedition’s Titan submersible on an ill-fated voyage to see the Titanic wreckage. He and the others died when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ shortly after the craft descended to the Titanic, the U.S. Coast Guard said. 

Action Aviation released statements from Harding’s sons giving tribute to their father on social media. 

‘My dad was a tenacious, hard-working businessman but most importantly he was the best father I could have ever asked for,’ said one son. ‘He inspired me more than anyone will ever know, taught me things I’ll never forget, and he meant everything to me. Anyone who ever met my dad will praise his humorous personality, his sheer work ethic, and his constant generosity. My life will be a success if I’m even half the man he is. My dad is gone but I will never forget him.’

The other son praised his father as an ‘avid adventurer, a loving father, family man and a determined and tireless businessman.’ 

‘In all of these areas, he constantly sought to be the best man he could be and did nothing half-way. Constantly full of wisdom and life advice to bestow, he made my brother and I into the people we are today. He was an energetic and charismatic man who by the sheer weight of his personality lifted up and supported everyone around him. His tragic loss will be mourned not only by myself and my family but everyone who had the pleasure to meet him. The world is so much less without his larger-than-life presence and his optimistic spirit.’

Harding was one of five crew members aboard the Titan sub when it lost contact with its surface vessel, the Polar Prince, around one hour and 45 minutes into its dive Sunday morning, about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and around 400 miles southeast of St John’s, in Canada’s Newfoundland.

The other passengers were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, who are members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families; and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French navy officer and leading Titanic expert.

The sub’s disappearance led to an international search and rescue effort that lasted for days before authorities found the remains of the sub using a robotic vehicle. 

‘The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination, we immediately notified the families,’ U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told reporters Thursday. ‘On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.’

Fox News’ Micahel Ruiz and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.