Meaning of "smile through the line of the questioning despite..."

Question

thank you for kind support always in advance.

Currently reading this article, there are lines saying,

"Now Van, you do spend a lot of time threading the middle and trying to unite people," Hostin said. "But there are those who accuse you of being a political opportunist - a chameleon, so to speak - who provided racial cover for former, disgraced, twice impeached President Trump."

Hostin then pointed to one of Jones' past comments praising the former president, saying "and I quote, 'Donald Trump, and I get beat up by liberals every time I say this, but I'm gonna keep saying it. He has done good stuff for the Black community. Opportunity zone stuff, Black college stuff. There's a side to Donald Trump that I think he does not give enough credit for.'"

Jones smiled through the line of questioning despite the direction in which it was headed.

Does this bold part mean Jones are trying to dodge the question by (Sunny) Hostin, smiling?

Thank you for your help.(m_m).

Answer 1

It doesn't say anything about "dodging questions". It seems to be completely literal: Jones continued to smile as these questions were being asked.

This is considered surprising, since the questions were becoming tough political questions which implied that he had been two-faced, and had shown poor political judgement. These are the sort of questions that might make you want to frown! It also means that Jones didn't get angry or show other negative emotions on his face. It says nothing about whether he did or didn't try to dodge the questions.