TEXAS — Former US President George W. Bush has become the highest-profile Republican to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election. Bush said he spoke to both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the phone and offered his warm congratulations. "Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country," Bush said. He said that President Trump had the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges but that the "American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld and its outcome is clear." Some of Donald Trump"s allies have stuck by him by refusing to accept the outcome of the US presidential election. Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted: "The media doesn’t decide who wins elections, voters do. In multiple states the margins are razor thin with counting ongoing, several of which are headed for recounts." "The media can project an election winner, but they don"t get to decide if claims of broken election laws & irregularities are true," tweeted Republican Senator Marco Rubio. Most Republicans have stayed silent on the outcome of the race, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump has, however, broken with tradition by refusing to concede the election. There were recounts in several states following Trump"s win in 2016 but that did not stop Hillary Clinton from conceding the election or Trump declaring victory. Some Republicans have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden, with Senator Mitt Romney calling on the party to get behind the new president. GOP Senator Roy Blunt told ABC that he thought it was too early to declare Biden the President-elect but said he thought a different outcome was "unlikely." Republican Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania spoke out on Friday before the election result was called by news organizations. "The president"s allegations of large scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I"m not aware of any significant wrongdoing here," the Pennsylvania Senator said. Senator Toomey said counting took a long time in Pennsylvania due to a massive quantity of mail-in ballots. In many of the states that took longer, mail-in ballots were not allowed to be counted until after the election. — Agencies