WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence said media reporting on the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection is meant to “demean” supporters of former president Donald Trump, some of whom stormed the Capitol that day shouting, “Hang Mike Pence!”

In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Monday night, Pence sought to explain media coverage of the Jan. 6 riot in which he was hurriedly evacuated from the Senate chamber and taken to a secure location amid threats to his life.

Mike Pence

“I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration’s failed agenda by focusing on one day in January,” Pence told Hannity. “They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020.”

Some 800 members of a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol as they sought to stop the counting of electoral votes for Joe Biden in the worst attack on the seat of democracy since the War of 1812. The riot left five people dead and more than 140 members of law enforcement injured.

Hours after the attack, Pence presided as Congress affirmed Biden’s win over Trump; he announced the final count.

In their book “Peril,” Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa revealed that Pence asked confidants if there were ways he could fulfill Trump’s demands and avoid certifying the results of the election on Jan. 6. Pence reached out to former Vice President Dan Quayle for advice; the fellow Indiana Republican told him he had no flexibility.

A select House committee is investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection and has issued subpoenas to top Trump officials and organizers of the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol.

Pence has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2024.