"To throw (someone) under the bus" is an idiomatic phrase in American English meaning to sacrifice a friend or ally for selfish reasons. It is typically used to describe a self-defensive disavowal and severance of a previously-friendly relationship when the relation becomes controversial or unpopular.
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On 21 June 1982, Julian Critchley of The Times (London) wrote "President Galtieri had pushed her under the bus which the gossips had said was the only means of her removal."
The phrase has been widely popularized by sports journalists since 2004 and was picked up by the mainstream media during the 2008 political primary season. It has frequently been used to describe various politicians distancing themselves from suddenly unpopular or controversial figures whom the candidate has previously allied themselves with. David Segal, a writer for The Washington Post, calls the expression "the cliché of the 2008 campaign".
In a March 2008 NPR report, the linguist Geoff Nunberg noted that "under the bus" "has appeared in more than 400 press stories on the campaign over the last six months".
Origins
After Julian Critchley, a relatively early use is attributed by the website Double-Tongued Dictionary to a 1991 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph.
Cyndi Lauper[1] is sometimes wrongly quoted as saying in The Washington Post in 1984: "In the rock ’n’ roll business, you are either on the bus or under it. Playing 'Feelings' with Eddie and the Condos in a buffet bar in Butte is under the bus." However, those lines were written by journalist David Remnick in an article about Lauper, but they are not attributed in the article to her or anyone else.