Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush [who recently released to the public tens of thousands of social security numbers and email addresses of Florida citizens] said Wednesday that the National Security Agency’s metadata program that secretly collects phone records of Americans in the name of national security is “hugely important.”

The Republican made the comments while discussing efforts to prevent terrorist attacks during a foreign policy speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

“That requires responsible intelligence gathering and analysis, including the NSA metadata program, which contributes to awareness of potential terrorist cells and interdiction efforts on a global scale,” Bush said.

The likely Republican candidate for president said he doesn’t get the opposition to the NSA’s program.

“For the life of me, I don’t understand,” Bush said. “The debate has gotten off track, where we are not understanding and protecting.”

It’s the sort of issue that could play out on a debate stage in 2016.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/18/jeb-bush-nsas-data-collection-program-is-hugely-important/