Gingrich: Nation's Violence Shows Obama's 'Tragic Failure of Leadership'

President Barack Obama had a "unique opportunity" as the nation's first black commander in chief, but he may have been afraid to make himself "a black president in a narrative sense," and the resulting national violence shows a "tragic failure of leadership," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Thursday.

"He could have relaunched a program to rebuild and launch hope in these communities, but instead he became the person who talked about how the Cambridge policeman was wrong, Ferguson was wrong, and Florida was wrong," Gingrich told Fox News' "Fox & Friends."

When it comes to incidents such as the rioting in Charlotte, North Carolina over the past two days, Gingrich said he finds it to be a tragedy that "eight years after our first African-American president took office, eight years after we've had two African-American attorney generals, the gap and the hostility if anything is worse and I think that's a tragic failure of leadership."

But still, you "can't tolerate" the violence like what happened on Wednesday night, as "that begins to be the end of civilization," said Gingrich. "We have to reinforce the rules."

People are trapped in the nation's neighborhoods with "no hope, no future, no jobs," he continued, and there have been more than 3,000 people shot in Chicago alone this year.

"One thing I'll say about [GOP nominee Donald] Trump, he's the first conservative I've seen willing to go into the inner city and talk about the need for dramatic change," said Gingrich, one of Trump's surrogates and advisers.

Gingrich also lauded the Smithsonian's new African-American history museum, which could help white Americans further understand the "experience of being black ... from slavery to segregation, to discrimination, and so we really do have to deal directly with the reality that we've had several hundred years of a very difficult history, and at times you have to be prepared, I think, to really reach deeply to try to build community."

Meanwhile, under Obama, "more Americans have been killed [in Chicago] while Obama was president than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined," said Gingrich.

• Trump: Country's Divisions Are 'Getting Worse'
• Police Chief: 'Absolutely No Doubt' Keith L. Scott Was Armed