Actor Columbus Short’s rap sheet seems to be growing by the day.  After his latest arrest over the Holiday weekend, he’s finally speaking out about WTF is going on…

While going through a messy divorce with wife Tanee McCall-Short, Columbus has been having a difficult time with life it seems.  From being arrested for public drunkenness during 4th of July weekend, to bar fights to alleged domestic violence involving estranged wife Tanee, things are looking really dicey for the actor/singer.

Columbus appeared to have gotten fired from his big job at “Scandal”, even though the official story was that HE decided to depart from the show.  And it seems he’s now ready to speak out about everything.  In a brand new interview with “Access Hollywood”‘s host Billy Bush, airing this week, Columbus dished up deets about what’s REALLY going on.  And he seems to shift much of the blame onto others:

“The last three months have been probably the most trying times of my life….I think there’s a time when your personal life gets magnified by who we are as celebrities.”

When asked about the Dallas incident on 4th of July: “There’s something visceral that happened inside of me, and yeah, I’ll say it, even as a black man in handcuffs on the ground, for no justifiable reason at all. I wasn’t acting intoxicated. I had had a couple of drinks, but whatever, I was angry and I used my vocabulary to kind of fight that….I didn’t get into a fight.”

On his “Scandal” departure: “Let’s talk about ABC and let’s talk about the show ‘Scandal.’ They did not throw me to the curb like trash – that’s my family. They knew that I was going through a tough season and rallied around me and wrapped their arms around me, from Shonda to the craft service man. We’re a family and I think at a certain point when you’re getting a barrage of stories after stories, ABC justifiably would want to distance themselves…. They did the right thing but I think it takes time to rebuild.”

On the “stories” surrounding his many arrests: “I lost a lot of things due to these ugly stories, whether they are true or not, the allegations just put an ugly, nasty taste in people’s mouth and that’s the unfair part that I’ve had to weather.”

Billy asked Columbus if he thought he had a drinking problem: “To be honest with you, I struggle with medicating with alcohol I think, and that’s a real truth. I think that deserves more looking into. If I want to be truthfully honest, I think dealing with the stress of the situations that I’ve been going through, medicating with anything, I think is dangerous because it becomes a crutch. But it doesn’t change it, the situation. That’s the funny part- I’m in a season where that’s not a part of my life– alcohol, drugs, those kinds of things aren’t around me, aren’t in my life, so it was an unfortunate event that happened the other night. Still yet, I think in the past that was definitely a struggle for me.”

On the domestic abuse allegations: “Me and my wife, we’re going through problems. Serious, serious problems. However, the domestic [violence] part of it… I’m not a physically violent man…. I’ve never put my hands on a woman, physically, ever, and would not. I was raised by women.”

When asked about his estranged wife and if there’s any chance for a future together: “This chapter is closed. There’s a new chapter, and I’m not the author of this, God is…. But I know that chapter is closed and I’m excited for the next one.”

Check out the video below:

The interview airs this week on “Access Hollywood”.