'We have so much hate': Americans debate the divided nation

So America Speaks, we're going to be talking to people who are really angry with conditions in America today

Now, they got different reasons for that anger. But they believe that something is not going right and they want it fixed

So before I go into anything, I want to know in a sentence, just one sentence

what makes you angriest about either life or conditions in America? And Jennifer, I'm going to start with you

Sure. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. I am mad just about immigration

Obviously, my anger has gotten better since January 20th, but I still think it's a major problem in the country

Xavier, what makes you angriest? Immigration, especially immigration because of what they're doing to all my people

And also, like, you know, I was not getting that opportunity to, you know, live in this great country because of who we are

Bernard, what makes you angriest? I think the tariffs, because I think we're being misrepresented or looking long-term, and I think what we're looking for are short-term results and instant results and not anything that's going to take years in order to get in order

Loretta, how do you answer that question? What makes you mad? the dismantling of the department of education and what they're doing to the department education

and education in a whole because i work in higher education so i see it i hear it every day

jan you're angriest at yeah i love our country it's the greatest country but i feel like we have

so much infighting right now that all it is is just people saying one thing people saying another

and we can't come together and agree on anything anymore. Alex, you're up

I think what I'm most mad about is the people who work for us, who we pay to take care of us, to protect us, to do right by us

are not doing that. They're not doing right by any of us. They're really just doing right by the richest of us, and that's it

Drew? Yeah, I think it's a great country, but the out-of-control government spending

the out of control government debt, the problem you can see that's going to happen down the road

and none of the elected officials are doing anything about it. Jessica

Oh, there's quite a few things that make me angry. I think Jessica, what makes you angriest

But I think the top thing has got to be just our divisiveness and how separated we all are

And there's so many things we could come together on, but we all just are so different in our opinions and we can't find the middle ground

Susan. I am most angry about immigration and not the lack of control of immigration and the violence that goes on with people that are just coming over here and taking advantage of what the American way of life and getting actual special treatment, housing, medical care, and it's not fair to the people that pay taxes

Gracie, you're up. Yeah, I'm angry about the erosion of the rights that were given to us as Americans in the Constitution that have happened since January 20th

Anthony? Yeah, the thing I'm most upset about is just that Americans are grieving for the sake of grieving

um there's so much to be hopeful for and um we have to look at the things that we should be

hopeful for before january 20th it uh it was immigration but we're definitely going in the

right direction now in that regard uh tamara constant opposition every time something happens

it's all or nothing there's no compromise there's no discussion it's impeachment it's arrest it's

criminal investigations, it's got to stop. We're not going to get anything done regardless of who's in power

If all of these things have to be constantly opposed, as if we're fighting a war against each other, enough is enough

Philip, what makes you angriest? If you're a legitimate citizen being deported, that makes me angriest

And Kyle, you're up? the thing that makes me just absolutely furious is the fear-mongering uh out there by the left

that likes to say if you're a republican you're automatically racist you're the government's

trying to cut social security and medicaid and all that crap okay clearly you're really opposed

to it because i can even hear how you said the word crap okay i'm sorry i used the wrong word

That's fine. It's better than the S word. Let me ask you, we'll start with immigration. I want to understand why immigration is so important to you. And Xavier, I'm going to start with you because you're from California. Are you Latino

Yes, 100%. Do you think that you're being targeted by people because of your ethnicity

Yes, 100%. I feel like that's been going on from generations, from my grandparents, parents, and now from my generation

And I feel like, you know, it hasn't stopped, you know. And I know it's not just Latin

I know it's other races too, you know what I'm saying? But I feel like right now it has really targeted us a lot because I feel like we are a big population growing every day

And I feel like I'm not sure if they feel threatened or not, or they feel like, you know what I'm saying, that they want to keep us controlled in the system and not give us that opportunity for resource for us to go

I feel like everybody deserves that. Everybody, you know what I'm saying, how do they claim American dream if we don't get that opportunity

Okay, John, you're also from California. The only state that's got two people on here

This is a representation of America. Is Xavier right to feel targeted and feel challenged in the situation that's going on right now

Well, I would say I'm not his nationality, but we hear stories

But at the same time sadly the predominant amount of illegals that have come in are of Hispanic descent So for me I see that that kind of the negative that goes along with trying to get rid of all of these illegals

The predominant amount are not African-American. They're not Asian. They're a predominant Hispanic

So sadly, his race is going to be targeted more so, in my mind

than everyone else. It's a sad fact, but it's a reality. Niall, is it fair that Xavier should be targeted

Well, I don't view it as targeting. The operative word here is illegal, or at least it should be. If you are in the country illegally, you've got the left that is spending all of my tax money to support people, free health care, giving them things that Americans who are in the country legally should be getting

you know people they they scream about cutting social security medicaid you wouldn't cut a dime

from it if you just stop getting it to illegals davier do you have a response to that uh yes i do

um so what would you say for the ones that let's say it's not illegal and they're here and they

don't even take advantage of the opportunity they're not working they're not doing nothing

And then let's say like the ones that are illegal, they're the ones putting in the work, still paying taxes

But the other the other the ones that here say, oh, we're legal and they're not doing anything about it

And they're just taking advantage of the system. So I don't really see how is that working

Who wants to go? If you're if you're law abiding, God bless you

And, you know, you're productive for this country, you know, and you try hard

God bless you. That's what I say. My fiance is a Latina immigrant from Costa Rica

And she believes she loves this country. She wants to keep it safe

And so, you know, she is fully in favor of protecting our borders

so you know god bless you xavier that's what i say somebody else well i think

sorry go ahead all i've got to add to that is why do american citizens need to provide an opportunity

even just opening our borders should be enough you should want to work you should want to raise

your family. You should want to go to school. I remember my great-grandparents that immigrated

here from Serbia in the 1920s. They didn't ask anybody for anything except for where do I send

my kids to school and where's the church? And when there was no church, they got a bunch of people

together and built one. They didn't take a penny from this government. They didn't take a penny

from any of their neighbors. They worked with them and they became legal, lawful American citizens

with productive family, children, grandchildren, and now we're on the sixth generation

Why do we have to, as American citizens, provide any more than come here legally and do your best

It should be enough. Not everybody. That's a big example because back when they came to this country

we actually didn't have any laws stipulating that anybody had to go through any paperwork or any processes

You just came in through Ellis Island or wherever, sign your name in a logbook, and you showed up

That's not true. My grandparents had to live separately for nine years

Ma'am, I'm not saying that it was easy. I'm saying that this country in the early 1900s did not have laws about immigration

Anyone was allowed to come for the first 200 years of this country's existence

But when you want to talk about undocumented immigrants, because human beings are not illegal, undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes into this government

And they actually do not receive anything back because they are undocumented. And therefore, they can't

How are they doing that? Answer that question. How are they doing that

If it's illegal for them to get a Social Security card, how are they paying taxes

That's a good question because a lot of them have fake Social Security numbers, which they use

And the taxes are taken out of their paychecks. Additionally, a lot of the undocumented immigrants in this country come from Canada and come from Europe and they overstay visas

They overstay tourist visas. They overstay student visas. And yet the focus is predominantly on people of color

Why is that? That is not because we are worried about safety in this country

That is because we are only focused on black and brown people who don't look like what we want Americans

I don't care. Where is it? I'm talking about you. I'm talking about why our government is focused on people of color as opposed to the litany

of white people who are here. They have to control this huge problem

Why is it? What is the problem? And why is it a problem that undocumented workers are coming in and doing work that Americans

don't want to do and get no better. That is such a problem. That is such a problem

You have to have systems in place. Okay, but we didn't have systems for 200 years, and now all of a sudden we have a system, and we're acting as though this system has been around forever

It hasn't been around forever. Unfortunately, things had to change because people were taking advantage of it

When I was watching the news and I was looking at Eagle Pass, Texas, I saw very few people that were coming here from Sweden and Finland and Norway

They didn't look like that to me. And all I'm saying is if you're going to come here, then come here legally

The color of your skin, where you come from, doesn't matter. The legality is what should matter, period

That's it. that's all it is and the longer we have to have the battle about legal versus illegal and illegal

social security numbers and being paid cash under the table the longer we're going to have this

problem because it's not right who cares where you come from just come legally you're talking

about this illegal stuff what about the indians they were here first so everybody who came after

the indians they're all illegals okay so they're all illegal but after they come and take the

territory from the indians now they want to put laws now they want to do about that what do you

suggest that's a whole different argument tell me what you suggest you made the argument

what do you suggest how do we fix that here oh now since we took over the territory we're going

to text everybody who don't belong here now because we're here now. We took it from the

Indians. And now we're going to text everybody who don't belong here

So what are you going to do to fix it? Give a suggestion. Nobody has to answer that. Every president has never, ever had an answer to what to do

with this problem, as you said. No administration. They blame each other. They point their fingers

at each other And just to let you know not everybody that here is looking for a handout And not everybody here is getting free medical There are actually some people in this country who are absolutely doing the right thing

And they want the same thing that you want for your children

Right, but you have almost 12 million illegals that are getting health care and welfare

Not everybody that's here is looking for a handout. and not everybody's hair is getting

pre-medical or getting what we call hair welfare. The vast majority of the

illegals sure are. Yes, they are. Yes, they are. Can you cite your sources

Yes, they are. I don't agree with it, but that's my opinion

It's true. They are getting food stamps. Everything that people who are

in the country legally should be getting is going to illegals and that is a fact where are you getting that information

all you gotta do is go to the government websites you see them all the time we've got 12 million

illegal people in this country and there's a lot of people waiting in line there's a lot of people

waiting in line legally who have filled out the paperwork followed the rules exactly and then you

They follow the rules and they're getting screwed because of it. With green cards that are getting deported, going to the meetings that are being mandated by the government

This doesn't fit your narrative. What meetings that are being mandated by the government

There are people all over the country who are literally going to green card meetings and are being snatched up by ICE and sent out of the country

They're illegal. illegal they are literally going to government meetings and getting snatched by ice because they

don't have u.s citizenship yet but they do have legal residency status and that's a whole other

issue where are they have where are they holding government meetings and snatching people out of a

government i haven't heard about any government meeting where i want to know because if that's

What he's talking about is people who are paying, who are following the rules and who are showing up at their with meetings with their with ICE and they show up

And as they're supposed to do to check in and then they're getting taken into custody and taken out of the country

And these are people. It's happened all the time. with a woman in florida who showed up with her child um and she got bounced to to cuba and she

was in the country legally and she was following all the rules and now she's in cuba and her

two-year-old child is is here tracy we don't know we don't know her we don't know if she was

following all the rules here we're going by what the media is saying in that we're a land of

immigrants we're a land of a melting pot of people you've got to come here legally that's the bottom

line if you come here legally you have a spot in in regards to what's being referred to right here

in new york city um there was an individual who was a student who was called in for his citizenship

in regards to the citizenship test. And it was set up. And it was taken at that point

That's the most current thing that's happened that most people know. Okay

Thank you. That would be really helpful if the media would tell us that directly

It's in the media. It's all over the place. If you read

Not the media that I watch. Not the media I watch. It might be isolated cases

but being widespread. Not what the liberal left media will tell you

All your MSL is hearing. You are really consumed with hate. I'm not consumed with hate at all

I guess you are. The problem is that the left is hate

Tracy, you're better than that. You don't look like you have that big of a problem

What have I said that's so hateful? You're consumed with hate. I'm not talking about you

I'm not talking about you. I'm not consumed with hate. That is absolutely a crutch to me

The way you're saying the words, it sounds hateful. Oh, that's bull

Come on. Look at how people win a Republican says the word hate

All of a sudden, the Democrats burning down an auto zone. That's your gap

This is typical of the Democrats. That's your gap. They blame the Republicans for fear-mongering

They blame the Republicans as haters when the Democrats are the ones that are using the hate. Exactly

How many Democrats... How many Republicans got arrested for messing up a time

When does an eye burn down in AutoZone? We're self-divided. That is why

Is hate- And the funny part is, if you own a Tesla

if you own a Tesla, you have the same people that are targeting Tesla owners

and Tesla is supposed to be the climate change fixer vehicle, and you're targeting that

I guess the Democrats are doing that too, huh? Yeah. Not really

That's exactly what they're doing. That's why this country is so divided

because nobody listens to each other. They rather scream. They rather blame

They rather... That's exactly what the Democrats do. They scream, they blame

and then they say it's the Republicans that are going to make the building. I don't think I'm writing everything. I think that I can

listen and I can learn. I never said I would write about everything. I absolutely agree with you on that, bro

I work with Republicans every day, and I work with Democrats, I work with Independents

I can learn from them. I don't have to scream at them. I don't have to curse at them

I don't have to blame them because I can learn, and guess what? They learned something from me, too

So that's what's wrong with this world. That is why we're divided. And that's why you can feel

You can feel a division. You can feel it in the air. It's intense

And it's crazy that we have so much hate. Yeah, if you're a Republican, you sure know what being hated by the Democrats is sure all about

Absolutely. I love everybody. Wow. I can agree with you. They love you

But I can disagree with you and still like you. you're absolutely right about that unfortunately you're just very rare in that party your opinions

are very rare in that party they really are i hope you don't lose that i really do i hope you don't

lose that yeah look for me the the first problem is is you can't do you can't come to america

and immediately break the law that's like that's that's a problem i have that i don't care about

Party Yeah Nobody would admit to that I mean the Republicans well the liberals aren saying hey they committing a crime I don want your very first thing on American soil is to break the law And that to me is the biggest issue Forget everything else Forget freebies and all of that

You're already breaking the law by stepping on American soil illegally. I mean, what are the liberals here willing to say to that

What are you talking about? Everybody broke it. Like, everybody, your parents, your grandparents

My parents came here legally. They tell me all the money they had to pay and borrow

to legally immigrate to America to give me the life I have. What I have to say to that is that you talk about breaking the law and that's fine

So I just want to know if that is applicable across the board

because if we're talking about people who are undocumented in this country

why is there never a focus or never a conversation once again on the millions

millions of white people who overstay their visas illegally from places like Canada

from places like Europe? And we only, only focus on people who are coming usually from war-torn countries or ravaged countries in South America that we had a handle in messing their whole government flow up and ruining life over there for them

Why is it that the focus is solely on brown people, people of color, people of Muslim descent, Latin descent, and not about the millions and millions of white people who are illegally overstaying their visas

because that is part of the 12 million or whatever illegal immigrants

It is. I think the biggest reason is we need to check your numbers, Alex

We need to get rid of the people who are dangerous. We don't want the criminals and the people, the murderers and the rapists

We want to get rid of those people from the country first. Okay, so Donald Trump is a rapist

Donald Trump is a convicted rapist. I'm just curious. Somebody mute his ass

Am I right? am i wrong yeah i think if we're getting right beside the country why is he bringing andrew

take back in i just want to know what about you want to know what about the folks who are here

um who are seeking asylum um i i just i'm just curious what do you guys think about asylum is

that there's too many there's too many people seeking asylum the criminals are trying to

filtering the government dude there are a lot of more terrorists i don't buy that no there's a

process tracy that you go through in asylum joe biden expanded that process and it's being abused

but there's been a process for decades and we should go back to that process that works i think

john summed it up really well i think it's very succinct when your first duty coming to america

is breaking the law i think that's where the the basis of the the issue and the anger comes from

Now, another thing is this, just to take into perspective, you know, anyone, you know, arguing that, you know, well, this Trump's immigration plan is, you know, is totally out of line

I mean, even like, I mean, I don't watch like, you know, MSNBC specifically, but I think even like on the liberal networks, even they're saying that most Americans do want to be strong on immigration

So anything that you're saying right now that's like, oh, you know, these plans are terrible

Well, you don't agree with most of America. And that's just, you know, poll after poll, survey after survey seems to prove that

Just to keep that into perspective. So your opinions are out of line with most of America

I just want you to understand. No, no, I respect your opinion

I agree. I agree, yeah. You got the criminals and all this

but the criminals is not one race. It's different ethics, different races

Understood. And Xavier, I do respect what I'm saying. It's different races

criminals. It's not just Latin, Hispanic people, criminals. It's every race. Every race, I guarantee you

race and I put my money on every race that every race has

an illegal that have come to this country. Look, Xavier, the problem is you don't hear it

They have criminals of different races that they got to get rid of. And I'm

even saying Hispanic people are criminals, the ones that have done evil stuff. And then they

should report, they should deport them because they're not appreciating. And I agree with you 100%

This is a beautiful country, and I love this country. This country is amazing

One, because it brings everybody from different races united. You get to learn about everybody's culture, everybody's food, everything

It's a beautiful country, beautiful people, and I totally agree 100%. Get rid of the criminals, and I always agree with that

I'm not even disagreeing with that. Well, that's the problem. When's the last time you heard an illegal, sorry, this is the fact

When's the last time you heard an illegal person from, say, Sweden came here and murdered an American citizen

Exactly. You think of Lincoln Riley. I mean, I can name you a bunch of Americans

Sadly, the fact is they're murdered by who? His illegal is bad. It's the numbers

Listen, John, there are people. How many people have broken the law

They should be in jail. They should be deported. for every person that comes over here

it's a majority men from Hispanic countries and all their half of them are terrorists trying to do something wrong

it's not all families coming in with kids it's not true in that case 99

of pool shooters are white boys white men They're legal citizens. Does that mean white men should not be allowed to own guns in this country

Does that mean white men should not be allowed to own guns? Because that's what you guys are sounding like

You're saying that because you've heard about a few news stories. Because you've heard about a few news stories

A few news stories? These people coming over here are raping American women

All disrespect. Your Fox News stuff is not actually news. And what does it watch in education

I don't watch MSNBC. It's trash. I actually get my news by reading a number of different sources, both left and right

And I do New York Times is trash. New York Times is trash

All of these companies are owned by rich people. All of these companies are owned by rich people whose best interest is to keep us fighting

about stupid shit like this with false information so that they should take our money because

that is literally what is happening. They are taking our money. You want to worry about immigrants coming in and taking your money and your job

Look at Elon Musk, because that man is literally stealing from you

Why are illegal immigrants getting social security cards and free medical attention

They're not. They're staying in fancy hotels in Chicago. They don't even work

He takes a dime from anybody that he hasn't earned. And illegal American citizen immigrant on top of it, okay

Because I hope one day you never need to use the technology that that man is developing

He hasn't developed anything. People do it for him. I really hope you don't need his technology or somebody you love

I hope I don't need it either because the cars explode, ma'am. All due respect, his technology is not very good

Oh, really? His rockets are exploding. His cars are exploding. I hope I don't need the technology

His cars are exploding because the Democrats are putting Molotov cocktails. Yes, it's the Democrats

Of course. If we could control that much, I guarantee you Trump would not be in power right now

Just say that the majority of murders and killings and what are all being committed by white people, as you say, I go to the Department of Justice website, if I were you, because you find out

school shootings I would go to the department of the fire you in my house

you're talking about immigration Alex you're using it as a corollary because if they're talking

about two or three people of Latin descent who happen to have murdered somebody that is not a

correlation with all men of Latin descent it's hundreds and hundreds of people

and your gang people are coming over here these gang people are coming over here

Yeah, I do believe that. The United States created. That was a gang that the United States created and exported out

Get out of here. No, why are you here? Why don't you go live over there

Why don't you pack up all your little liberal friends and head off to live with MS-13

I do. I live in New York City. What do you think? Get out of here

My family's been here longer than yours. My family came here in 1920

And you can't handle it. My family came here in 1897. I think that I've been here longer than you, lady

You think? Yeah, I do think. I agree. I don't think so

I don't agree. My family's been here 23 years longer than your family. So does that mean that I'm the one who should leave or that you should leave

No, you can't. My family came here. There were no laws about immigration

They were allowed to walk in the door. They signed a little law book. They walked in the door

All of this crap. We're stealing. Our money is being stolen. All of this other stuff

Elon Musk doesn't know. Everything that you said about this country is absolutely negative

While you're sitting in your nice little house or your apartment in New York

and you're talking about all the negativity going on in this country. That's what we're talking about here, man

We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore. That's it. I agree

That's tombaya. What are you doing here I agree You going to want to take it I will make sure the door doesn hit you in the ass on the way out It okay I don know We going to stop Hold on Hold on

That is the longest I've ever gone. Hold on. At 25 minutes from asking the last question until now

I have never gone as long in a focus group. Y'all demonstrated in living color

as graphically as you possibly can. Exactly why Americans are mad as hell

I am not going to make an edit. I'm going to keep it straight. But I want to know from you as a way to wrap up this segment

How does that give and take with each other? How does that make you feel

I feel cheated. I feel like the people that are coming in here

get everything for free. free logic free health care everything not re-litigating the issue i'm asking about the group

i'm i'm heartbroken because i i just see my fellow americans just you know you're not going

to like this but i see faces that are just twisted with with hate and oh bull crap now

Your face. You're just automatically branding me because I just look at you

I'm looking at you. You don't know a thing about me anymore. I'm seeing what you're saying. I see that

You're not seeing anything. I am too. You're not hearing anything either

because you're not listening to what I'm telling you. Don't tell me to come on

You're the one that needs to wise up. I am not. You need to wise up

You're sitting in your armchair and you're. So? You're boo-hooing about your race

You're hiding behind your race. I did not say a word about race

Who's talking about race? Who's talking about race? You're hiding behind your race

Excuse me? That was awful. Frank, I'm going to have to leave. No

Hold on. Hold on. That's just. The only thing I ask of you, the only thing I ask

How dare you. Oh, stop, please. How dare I what? Stop. I'm not talking to you

He wasn't talking to you. Everyone stop. Now, this is a fascinating conversation

Those of you who know me know that I actually stopped doing focus groups for this very reason

Right. And it was over the issue of immigration and I stopped doing it for about a year because every time I would bring up this issue it would come apart I only knew in recruiting you we never asked what your issues were

I only knew that you felt like you were mad as hell. And I hear you

My only question now as a way to wrap this up, I'm going to try again

Don't you? I'm a teacher. I'm a professor. Aren't you concerned about what this means

for the country going forward? Answer your original question. Very concerned. How does this make you feel? It immediately comes to sad

People aren't listening to each other. Everyone's just sort of talking at their at each other instead of listening and i think it's very i think it

epitomizes where america is at right now i think there's common ground if we actually stood back

and listened and and thought about kind of where where the other person was coming from but this

conversation illustrates i i don't think that i don't think we're there quite yet hold on hold on others hold on bernard you've not spoken up you're from wisconsin i know

something about your state. It was about 15 years ago, Scott Walker was governor, and the state came

apart over political issues. And I was in Madison. I was in the Capitol when this happened

And they actually urinated on the floor of the Capitol and defecated on the floor

And the political situation in Wisconsin has never been the same. There was always a kindness

a gentleness, and a level of respect, even if they disagreed. Wisconsin had a lot of

conservatives and a lot of progressives, but they got along, and then it came to a breaking point

Bernard, I don't know where in Wisconsin you're from, but how does this conversation make you feel

about America? Well, I think that instead of listening to each other to find the common ground

we seem to be digging in our heels and justifying more our own attitudes and how we feel about the

situation. And I think that we are right by what we believe in and not necessarily listening to

to others to learn from them and to find the common ground to reach a situation that would make us less angry

Yeah and I agree It just America great The country beautiful and amazing country It just the people not making the right choices And I understand you trying to protect your country and I respect that for it that you guys want to protect your country

love your country, because that's how we are with our country. We love and protect

our country. We love it. We love our people. And I get it. I understand. But there's a common

ground that we do need to, like he was saying, we need to listen to each other

so we can find common ground of how we can understand each other

And I want to ask Jessica because you barely also participated in that whole conversation. Arizona's ground zero

for the division in politics. And I watched it take place in 2020. You now saw it and you

you were there, you just witnessed it. How does this conversation make you feel

Well, I mean, it was hard to even get a word in because everybody was talking over each other

And I think that kind of sums up how the political state of our country is right now

Like everybody's just talking to get their point across and they're not listening to what the other person has to say

They're thinking about what they want to say next instead of listening

And I think it just shows that we're not using our brains very well

We're just wanting to get our opinion in. And if you actually listen to each other, it's easier to find common ground because then you can find where you have things in common, even if you're completely opposite on your political ideals

So I just want to say, as someone who started by asking what makes you angry, I probably should have jumped in

But what makes America Speaks different is that the public gets a chance to see a much more full discussion

Every time these focus groups are on TV, which is quite often now, all they get is a 30-second soundbite

And they don't get to hear the context of why people feel the way that they do. And I believe that's important. And they don't get a chance to hear the entire discussion. They only get to see the loudest, the most confrontational. I don't think that's proper

So that's why this segment has been so important and so enlightening

And in some ways, I think it's going to have the biggest impact of anything that I've ever done on Straight Arrow News

I'm Dr. Frank Luntz. And I'll be thinking about this session in the weeks and months that follow

I thank you for watching and please come back to us again

for the next installment of America Speaks