Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

In the wake of police shootings of two African-American men this week, Newt Gingrich said Friday “it is more dangerous to be black in America” than white.

"It is more dangerous, in that they are substantially more likely to end up in a situation where the police don't respect you and where you could easily get killed. And sometimes for whites it's difficult to appreciate how real that is and how it's an everyday danger,” the former House speaker said Friday on CNN commentator Van Jones’ Facebook Live stream in a conversation on race and law enforcement.

"It took me a long time, and a number of people talking to me through the years, to get a sense of this: If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don't understand being black in America, and you instinctively underestimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk," he added.

Gingrich — a potential running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump — said that every time black Americans walk up to a car or go into a building where there is a robbery they run the risk of being killed by police.

But he also added that law enforcement officers are as “on the front line of saving civilization as our military.”

“But we don't quite have the same sense of awe, sense of respect, and yet they put their life on the line every day,” he said.

The conversation between Gingrich and Jones followed a series of shootings over the past week.

On Thursday night, five Dallas police officers died and several others were wounded after a law enforcement-targeted shooting. The ambush took place during a protest in Dallas in response to the deaths of two black men from police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota.