Columbus Short insists he was not drunk at the time of his arrest in Dallas for public intoxication on Saturday. "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," the former Scandal star told Access Hollywood's Billy Bush on Monday. "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."

Short was booked after allegedly fighting with security at a local bar called Katy Trail Ice House, an employee told PEOPLE. "To be honest with you, I struggle with medicating with alcohol, I think, and that's a real truth," he added. "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."