Poll: 45% of GOP Are Birthers

The Hill reports:

A plurality of Republicans believes that President Obama was not born in the United States, according to a new poll released Thursday.

Forty-five percent of registered Republicans think Obama was born outside the U.S., 33 percent believe he was born in the U.S. and 22 percent don't know, per the results of a CBS News/New York Times survey.

The issue of Obama's birthplace has reemerged with Donald Trump's flirtation with a run for the GOP nomination for president. Trump has raised questions about the validity of Obama's birth certificate, which his campaign released in 2008 to prove that he was born in Hawaii.

Republicans worry the issue could end up hurting their party and helping Democrats. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, this week vetoed legislation approved by her state's legislature that would have forced presidential candidates to prove their citizenship in order to get on the state's ballot