Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin voiced her support of Donald Trump's investigation into where President Obama was born despite the fact that she believes the president was born in Hawaii. Palin, long been rumored to be a presidential candidate for the GOP in the 2012, voiced her support over the weekend for Trumps's decision to hire investigators to examine the circumstances of Obama's birth. The billionaire real estate mogul announced the investigation last week during an interview on NBC's "Today Show".

"More power to him!"" Palin said Saturday on Fox News. "I appreciate that the Donald wants to spend his resources in getting to the bottom of something that so interests him and many Americans."

Palin added that she personally believed Obama was born in Hawaii because of his birth announcement in a Hawaiian paper, but added, "obviously there's something there that the president doesn't want people to see on that birth certificate...he's going to great lengths to make sure it isn't shown. And that's kind of perplexing for a lot of people."

Trump, a potential 2012 presidential candidate and recently self-proclaimed birther, once again discussed the issue during an appearance Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

“The fact is nobody has any information. And his people in the United States don’t even know which hospital. His relatives don’t even know which hospital he was born in,” Trump told Candy Crowley. “It’s a very strange situation, that’s all I can tell you. And you know, it’s a very sad thing because the people, the birthers, they got labeled and they got labeled so negatively and even the word birther is a negative word.”

Trump added during the interview that he didn't want to talk about the birther issue too much, saying he would rather talk about other issues instead. "I really would rather talk about China, I would really rather talk about what OPEC is doing to destroy us, I would really rather talk about other things,” he said.

Despite the fact that the birther claims have been repeatedly debunked, a survey released by Public Policy Polling in February shows that a majority of likely Republican primary voters--51 percent--believe President Obama was born outside the United States. Another 28 percent of voters said they were unsure of where the president was born.

For the most part, Trump's birther strategy may be helping him in the polls. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on the Republican presidential nomination race shows Trump tied for second among GOP voters with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with both men at 17%. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Rommey was first in the poll, capturing  21% of the vote.

David Plouffe, a senior advisor to President Obama, said on Sunday that he does not believe Trump has a legitimate shot at winning the 2012 election.

“There is zero chance that Donald Trump would ever be hired by the American people to do this job," Plouffe said on ABC's "This Week." “I saw Donald Trump kind of rising in some polls and given his behavior and spectacle the last couple of weeks, I hope he keeps on rising."

Plouffe also addressed Trump's recent media barrage of birther claims. “There may be a small part of the country that believes these things, but mainstream Americans think it’s a sideshow,” Plouffe said, adding of Trump,

"That’s not leadership, that’s, kind of, sideshow behavior." 

Trump fired back at Plouffe following the interview, reiterating the birther claim once again. "I know for a fact that I am the only candidate they are concerned with," he told The New York Daily News. "They are very concerned because I am challenging him as to whether or not he was born in this country where there is a real doubt."

Trump said during the "Today Show" interview that he will formally announce his decision sometime prior to June.