The President’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement and his public statements about nationally reported conflicts between individuals and the police contribute to racial tensions, retired Colonel Allen West told Accuracy in Media.

Colonel West believes that the President has “…set race relations in America back,” stating that, “…it appears that he has a certain ideological bent, and that has created this incredible current out there that has such racial tension.”

Obama’s decisions to skip the funeral of Margaret Thatcher and the funeral of “the highest ranking officer…[who] lost his life in Afghanistan” contrast starkly with his choices to “send representatives to the services for Michael Brown or…personally go to the services in South Carolina because of the horrific thing that happened there…”

According to Colonel West “…the President…always wants to try to use his skin pigmentation as a get out of jail free card. And what we’re talking about are his policies, we’re talking about his principles, we’re talking about his values not being in concert with those of a constitutional republic.”

“I can’t see any place where President Obama with his far left progressive socialist agenda has done anything that advances America,” Colonel Allen West declared during his recent interview with AIM.

Colonel West identified some of the President’s most detrimental accomplishments, including the deterioration of Obamacare, climbing healthcare costs, “…the decimation of our national security and our military…” and the “false narrative” propagated about the Iranian nuclear deal.

While the President often blames his predecessor for poor economic conditions, Colonel West noted that Obama may become the nation’s only president to preside over an economy that never exceeds 3% GDP growth. He also pointed to Obama’s “…whole hearted desire to bankrupt the coal industry and to decimate the oil and natural gas industry through regulatory fiat…”

Asked what conservative American citizens and the next conservative president can do to repair the damage the nation has incurred during Obama’s tenure in office, Colonel West declared:

“The American people are hurting and they want someone that will genuinely stand up for American principles and values. They want someone that will genuinely stand up for restoring this republic, this sense of American exceptionalism and pride, to build a military that will be a credible and a deterrent force not a military that will be placed on their knees at the gunpoint of Iranians, to build an economy that’s based upon small business entrepreneurship and growth not someone that says if you own a business ‘you didn’t build that.’ …if you just have someone with the courage and conviction of their principles to stand up and say this far left progressive socialist agenda is not in the best keeping with…our fundamental principles, I think that you will have success.”

Alex Nitzberg is an intern at the American Journalism Center at Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.