Celebrity doc says impeachment hearings prompted him to mull run against Adam Schiff

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.) might end up having to contend with some celebrity star power on the campaign trail in the near future.

Celebrity addiction medicine specialist and former "Loveline" host Dr. Drew Pinsky told The Hill in a recent interview that he's "ruminating" about running against the House Intelligence Committee chairman in his southern California congressional district, saying that he feels like he has to do something to address how just how poorly things are going in the Golden State.

"We have people literally dying in our streets," he told the outlet, adding that the Los Angeles County and statewide government is "not functioning,"

"I wake up every day and drive through this town and I am morally moved where I feel like I have to do something," he lamented.

"People have sort of been swirling around me, going, 'Oh, you should run for mayor.' Well I didn't really want that job. 'Well, you should run for governor.' Well, that's not really possible. So I was sort of thinking about these things," the 61-year-old Pinsky explained in the report.

What turned Pinsky's thoughts to a congressional run, he said, was watching the House's impeachment hearings on television.

"I was watching all the impeachment proceedings and I was going, 'Oh my God, our Congress is tied up and we're dying out here in California. What are these people doing?'" he said.

Then, he says he realized he'd lived in Adam Schiff's district for 20 years and thought that he had to run for the office "at least just to get him to start participating in the governance of this region."

He said he's "very moderate" and if he ran, he'd probably do so against Schiff as a Democrat in California's "jungle" primary system. Just for reference, Adam Schiff has been serving in Congress since 2001 and won his last re-election bid with just over 78% of the vote.

However, Pinsky says he's reluctant and explained that right now he's only considering the idea.

"Believe me," he said of a potential congressional run. "I don't want to."

According to his website, Pinsky currently still treats medical patients at his practice while hosting a Los Angeles-based radio program and a show on MTV.