We caught up with Mr. Schiff by phone a couple of days later. Some excerpts:

Q. Some activists are making calls to impeach Mr. Trump. What’s your view?

A. I prosecuted an impeachment in the Senate a few years ago involving a federal judge who was corrupt. It was a very serious undertaking when it involved a judge with a lifetime appointment. It’s a whole other order of magnitude when you’re talking about the president of the United States. I don’t think it’s something that anyone should rush toward without understanding the full evidence of what the president may or may not have done.

Republicans accuse the state’s Democrats of letting an obsession with Mr. Trump sidetrack them from important issues. Is there some truth to that?

Part of it is just structural. We are in the minority. And the administration is threatening to do away with health care for tens of millions of people and so we have to defend against that. And the president is walking away from our global leadership in combating climate change and we have to defend against that.

But we have to continue to emphasize what we are for. And in particular how we’ll create economic opportunity for all across the country.