"[13] His earlier history was toppled when Kleppe attacked then deputy leader Terje Søviknes in the turmoil around the sex scandal he was involved with at the time, insinuating him of fooling around with young girls and possible sexual assaults.
[7] The suspension was restricted to a year only, but Kleppe chose to leave the party and contested the 2001 parliamentary election as a candidate for the Southern Norway List.
[23] Kleppe has held speeches at several rallies of the anti-Muslim activist group Stop Islamisation of Norway (SIAN).
[23] When running for the 2007 local elections, Kleppe cited as his most important issues to fight for the weak in society and against poverty, as well as to stop the Islamisation and dechristianisation of Norway.
[31] He has publicly endorsed the controversial short film Fitna, made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, and recommends everyone to see it.
[32] In January 2009, Kleppe was denied membership of the eurosceptic organisation Nei til EU as he, according to its leader Heming Olaussen (a former member of the Socialist Left Party), stood for "racist attitudes".
[33] This action led to the resignations of a large number of members, including one county secretary citing it to be totally unintelligible to deny Kleppe membership, as he was "one of the greatest supporters of Nei til EU during the last EU-referendum".
[34] Kleppe, regarding this event, even received support from one of his strongest political rivals, Harald Sødal, a former Christian Democratic deputy mayor of Kristiansand.
This include a proposal of limiting kontantstøtte (social security for children choosing not to go to kindergarten) to only Norwegian citizens in 1998, which was later raised by Per Sandberg in 2004.