Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the stakes of the midterms are 'incredibly high,' with abortion access, Social Security, and Medicare on the line

• AOC said the stakes of the midterms are "incredibly high" if Republicans take the House.
• The party will roll back access to abortion and cut funding for Medicare and Social Security, she said.

On a recent episode of the "Pod Save America" podcast, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stressed just how much is at stake in the upcoming midterm elections.

"The stakes of this midterm are so incredibly high," Ocasio-Cortez told the podcast's hosts and former Barack Obama staffers Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor.

"If Republicans take the House, they have stated in no unclear terms that they intend to support a national, criminal, abortion ban, that they want to hold the United States economy hostage in order to gut Social Security and Medicare," she continued. "And I mean, like the list goes on: climate change, criminalization of everything, all this stuff."

"The stakes are really high right now. It's very serious," she added.

Republicans are favored to win the House in the upcoming election, partly due to frustrations over the economy.

In September, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy unveiled the GOP's 2023 "Commitment to America" platform, which would create stricter rules around abortion and potentially cut spending on Social Security and Medicare.

Ocasio-Cortez also told the "Pod Save America" hosts that on her flight to California for a rally at UC Irvine on Sunday, a flight attendant approached her with tears in her eyes and said, "I'm just so scared. Are we going to be OK?"

"I'm not going to tell you not to worry," the Congresswoman responded.

"We need to work really, really hard because we are still very much at this very critical precipice of fascism in this country and that's very, very real," Ocasio-Cortez added on the podcast.