WASHINGTON— Republicans like to tout the elephant as their party symbol, but as Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake recently found out, the animals don’t always like Republicans.

The Republican senator posted a video on his Twitter account Thursday of a group of elephants, including baby elephants, charging his group’s vehicle in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. The video filmed from the back of the vehicle shows a small herd running toward them, and someone says “go, go, go” from the car as it speeds up.

“These elephants have no respect for a fellow Republican,” Flake tweeted in a post that included the video. “No respect I tell ya.”

Management at Gorongosa National Park confirmed that elephants approached a U.S. delegation during a visit last week. Flake was part of a congressional mission of Republicans and Democrats that he led to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia last week to investigate the harmful effects of wildlife trafficking and poaching. He has introduced a bill to require the U.S. government to work with countries affected by wildlife poaching.

Flake is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Africa and Global Health Policy subcommittee.


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