US Election: Former President George W Bush congratulates Joe Biden on victory

Joe Biden marked his first full day as president-elect by attending church, having pledged to unify the US during his forthcoming term in the White House.

Former US President George Bush and Queen Elizabeth II at the White House, Washington DC during his presidency.

The former vice president had used his maiden speech following Saturday’s announcement that he had won the 2020 presidential election to call for Americans to “lower the temperature” and “listen to each other again” after a divisive campaign.

Mr Biden, only the second Catholic to be elected to the Oval Office, attended mass on Sunday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

After the service, he headed in the direction of the cemetery where his son Beau is laid, along with first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi, who died together in a car crash almost 50 years ago.

President Donald Trump spent Sunday morning on the same golf course where the day before he had learned that broadcasters had started calling the election for his Democrat rival.

Mr Biden clinched victory after winning the key battleground of Pennsylvania on Saturday, some four days after polls closed, pushing him over the 270 electoral college votes threshold.

Upon arrival at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, Mr Trump was greeted by a handful of demonstrators, with one critic displaying a placard reading: “Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall.”

Mr Trump has continued to protest at the way the election was handled, taking to social media to lambast how state-by-state results are declared by news outlets in the US.

“Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!” he tweeted on Sunday.

But former president George Bush, who issued a statement congratulating Mr Biden, said the election was “fundamentally fair”.

The Republican, who served two terms in the White House, said: “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.”

Mr Bush said his party’s candidate Mr Trump held the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges but added: “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”

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