You're not implying that the Democrats did not return, right? You're asking why the Republicans didn't just deny a quorum by leaving? I mean, I don't know if that would have even been possible, and it is a different issue than the main point of my article, which is to observe that the D.C. elites actually in charge of the federal government right now live in a false reality in which they gaslight themselves and everyone else into believing that their side is less violent and that January 6 was supposedly an "insurrection".