Appearing on the sports radio show “Boomer and Carton,” he said he could not fathom why his candy eating habits had received such scrutiny.

“Why would you go bag to box?” asked the host. “Just eat ’em out of the bag!”

“You know why?” Mr. Christie answered. “Because it’s easier to hold the box than to hold the bag.”

But the host pressed on, saying the governor’s approach was “an interesting maneuver.”

“You get the box, you open the box, there’s a bag inside the box,” Mr. Christie explained. “Why they do it that way I have no idea, but you open up the bag, you pour the bag into the box so it’s easier to hold.”

The next question from the host was logical, if not more wisely directed at the company that manufactures M&M’s, Mars Chocolate.

Why don’t they just sell the candy in the box? Isn’t the bag superfluous?

“Listen, I run New Jersey, not M&M-Mars. I have no idea,” Mr. Christie said.