Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign event at City Garage in Baltimore on Sunday, April 10. New Clinton ad mentions Trump by name

Hillary Clinton is taking direct aim at Donald Trump in a paid ad for the first time, with a new 30-second spot that will air in New York City beginning this week.

“With so much at stake, she’s the one tough enough to stop Trump,” says the voiceover at the end of the ad, implicitly making a case against Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s Democratic primary opponent.


Clinton and Sanders are locked in a battle over New York, which votes April 19, and both candidates are spending considerable time campaigning around the state, each claiming to have the closest ties to it. A new ad released by the Sanders campaign on Sunday refers to the Vermont senator, who was born in Brooklyn, as a “native son.”

But this new Clinton spot is the first one where the former New York senator directly mentions and shows Trump, as opposed to an earlier one that suggested his values were out of line with New York’s and showed a sign with his name on it — but that never explicitly mentioned the front-runner.

Monday’s ad begins with a voiceover proclaiming, “He says we should punish women who have abortions,” followed by a clip of the Republican front-runner saying, “There has to be some form of punishment.”

The voiceover continues: “That Mexicans who come to America are rapists,” followed by yet another clip of the tycoon speaking. And the final voiceover: “And that we should ban Muslims from coming here at all,” followed by a third brief view of the billionaire.

The commercial then shows Clinton speaking out against Trump at a rally, as many of the Democratic front-runner’s backers have been quietly urging her to do more intensely. “Donald Trump says we can solve America’s problems by turning against each other. It’s wrong, and it goes against everything New York and America stand for," she says.

Clinton and Sanders are waging a tense battle over New York, the state with the second-most delegates at stake in the entire Democratic calendar. Sanders has won seven straight states, but he has struggled to chip into Clinton’s pledged delegate lead of over 200, and tensions have risen between the two candidates as the race rolls on.

After focusing her attention more on Trump and the Republicans in mid-March, the former secretary of state has since returned more to the Vermont senator, whose recent wins have energized his base and spurred him on to New York.