WATCH: NYC Mayor Adams says he ‘deserves private time’ after US Virgin Islands vacation

When asked about his whereabouts on the Thursday and Friday before Christmas while parts of the city were underwater, the mayor told reporters that he took a two-day vacation to the US Virgin Islands.

"I was amazed to see how you responded," he told reporters, explaining that this was his second Christmas without his mother and that he was in a "state of depression."

"After 365 days of commitment to this city, I decided to take two days to reflect on mommy," he said, "and to watch how you responded to my two days out of this city was really alarming."

"So, if I take time off to get my mental capacity together, so I can take this city through the crisis, I deserve those two days," he stated defensively.

Following Adams' sudden disappearance from the public eye on Thursday, questions have been raised relating to what level of transparency is required from the Mayor's office regarding his travels, according to the New York Post.

"Every mayor traveled away," he said, "I deserve private time. I'm a believer of that. I deserve to walk out of a building without a reporter hiding behind a flower pot, without someone following me."

"Nowhere in the city charter does it state that I have to report to the New York City press where my whereabouts are, and I'm not going to do that," he added, "And I’m not going to apologize for having the mental and physical capacity that’s needed to do the second most difficult job in politics in America."

His defensiveness was apparently triggered by a New York Post reporter asking "What is the trigger for him coming back if not a fatal house fire & flooding in Jamaica Bay?"

Following his sunny vacation, the mayor was spotted at a Christmas Eve midnight mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. When asked that night about his whereabouts the previous few days, he joked that he had been "getting some rest and hiding from The Post."