The White House today called the move by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to force a vote on the president’s jobs bill by attaching it to the China currency bill, “a political stunt.”

“It was a very disingenuous attempt to draw attention away from the fact that this president is calling on members of Congress, both Houses, to act on jobs and the economy,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One this afternoon.

Earlier today McConnell said he wanted to give the president what he’s been demanding for the past several weeks: an immediate vote on the jobs bill. The move was an attempt to highlight the lack of support for the American Jobs Act in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refused to play and blocked McConnell’s request for a vote on the full jobs bill.

“I would simply point out that [this is] coming from a Senator who has on the record stated that his number one priority as the Republican Leader in the Senate is, not the economy, not jobs, but to defeat President Obama. We’re focused … on the things that we can do now, 13 months ahead of the election, to put people back to work and grow the economy,” he added. “We want it to be debated and for members of Congress, of the Senate and then hopefully the House, to vote on it and for those who vote against it to explain why.”