throw someone under the bus
v. phr.— «We have benefited from having him here and I don’t feel any need to throw him under the bus.…He’s gotten pretty good results. He could use some help from his members, who could pay more. He has had some rough times, but you have to look forward.» —“Director Of Bureau Under Fire” by James Lawless Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) Feb. 20, 1995. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Here’s a clever unparalleled misalignment, in which the word or words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other, but the terms themselves mean different things: break ground and Cleveland. This is part of a complete episode...
When you had sleepovers as a child, what did you call the makeshift beds you made on the floor? In some places, you call those bedclothes and blankets a pallet. This word comes from an old term for “straw.” And: What’s the story...